Kirby: Right Back At Ya! - Season 2
by Vile.EXE
Summary: My version of the second run of the Kirby anime. Transformed by the power of a mystical jewel, Kirby finds himself facing a whole new slew of monsters. Action and hijinks await as Kirby shows new strength with Copy Abilities both old and new!
1. A New Way To Think Pink

**Vile: Some days I feel like my story drive is schizophrenic: I randomly get ideas for my stories, and it made me make the first chapter this Kirby fanfic. Kirby: Right Back At Ya! was and still is one of my favorite animes of all time, so this fic is my take on a second run of that series. BTW, there's a major plot element that might be too big of a change for some purists, so please suspend your disbelief, but then again, for anyone who's been on my dA page, you'll already know about this. This chapter is mainly to test the waters and see what you guys think of it. I also didn't know where exactly to post the intro song. XD I'll post more chapters if you guys like it. I don't own anything canon about Kirby, games OR anime, but I do own anything of mine that eventually appears. Enjoy, folks!**

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Kirby: Right Back At Ya! Next Season

Episode 1: A New Way To Think Pink

Deep in the reaches of space, a spacecraft tore across the stars. Within the craft was a gleaming white star-shaped jewel of some sort. Next to them was a small girl with two wings like a dragonfly, pink hair with a red bow on top of her head, a red-and-white dress, and beige feet. Her blue eyes quivered with fear as she constantly looked out the windows of the ship. Her fears were confirmed as, out of nowhere, a dark energy blast struck the back of her ship, causing a massive spin-out. "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Another dark energy blast smashed open the window, and another one caused the ship to rock, making the jewel fly clean out the window, sending it and the ship on two different crash courses... with Pop Star.

A shadowed figure that seemed to have hair and a cape started to chase after the ship, but it was stopped by a different figure. "Let her go!" It said, looking back at Pop Star. "Master has told us about this planet… If we're lucky, we ourselves won't have to lift a finger to retrieve it."

"You had better know what you're doing…" The caped figure growled.

"Oh, trust me. I know exactly how to win over the locals… or at least one of them." The other figure replied with a chuckle.

*Down on Pop Star*

The sun shone down on the field on the outskirts of Cappy Town, the time being three months since the defeat of eNeMeE. Peace had returned to the planet, though the one blemish (in most eyes) was that King Dedede's castle had been completely rebuilt since then. What would our group of heroes be doing today? Well, the football that was just flung through the air should answer that question. The football was caught by Tuff, with Kirby, Iro, Spikehead, Fololo, and Falala around them. "Hey Tuff, I'm open!" Iro called.

"Catch!" Tuff called, throwing the football toward him, Iro running after it.

However, Fololo, who kept to the ground, made a motion like he was jumping and snagged it clean out of the sky. "Mine!" He chirped.

"Oh no you don't! Get back here!" Falala laughed, chasing after her male counterpart. Off to the sidelines were Tiff, Honey, and a third figure that looked like a pink spherical creature about the same size as Kirby, with no arms, big purple eyes, brown feet, a red bow tie, and a jester hat with one blue side and one red side, who was sitting on top of a multicolored ball. He appeared distracted.

"Come on, Spikehead, grab it!" Honey cried.

"Haah!" Spikehead leapt after Fololo, grabbing hold of his feet.

"YIPE!" Fololo cried as he and Spikehead hit the ground, Fololo dropping the football. Tuff rushed toward the ball, but an Inhale swept it up, which cut out right as the ball reached Kirby, the puffball grabbing it and holding it up.

"Aw, man!" Tuff groaned.

"Nice Inhale, Kirby!" Spikehead said with a laugh.

"Poyo poyo!" Kirby chirped.

"Hey Kirby, throw it here!" Falala chirped, holding her hands out. Kirby did this in an unorthodox way: He ate the ball, rumbled a bit, then spit it out toward the floating girl. "Whoa!" She tried to catch it, but it went right past her… toward the armless jester. "Watch out, Marx!"

"Huh?" Marx asked, turning to see the football coming right at him. "WHAA!"

_**BAM!**_

The impact of the football knocked Marx right off his ball, the poor jester's foot twitching with a dazed look and a red impact circle on his face. "Ooh… that had to hurt." Tiff mused, getting up and walking over, helping the jester to his feet. "You okay, Marx?"

The jester shook his head (or body) rapidly, blinking. "Dang! You gotta tame that killer Exhale, Kirby! You're gonna take someone's head off one of these days!" He started laughing in good spirits, which was quickly contagious, as everyone else was soon laughing as well.

*Meanwhile*

Up in King Dedede's castle, a welding torch was at work on a piece of metal, King Dedede sitting on his throne watching with protective goggles over his eyes. Escargoon was next to him, also wearing goggles. The torch was then shut off, and the person using it lifted his welding mask. He was an egg-shaped creature with no feet and detached, floating hands with white gloves. He wore a regal blue suit, complete with a white cape with gold trimmings and a dash of purple, the suit itself having gold-trimmed cog designs. He also wore a white scarf with a blue buckle interwoven. His face seemed void-like with a black-to-brown color, and his eyes were oval-shaped, yellow, and glowing. "That'll do it. All fixed up." He was floating in front of King Dedede's old monster-delivering system, which had completely fixed up.

King Dedede and Escargoon removed their goggles, checking the egg-shaped creature's handiwork. "Hmm… Heh heh heh heh! I gotta admit, ya didn't do too shabby, Mabogor!"

"That's 'Magolor', Your Majesty." The creature said, putting his tools away in a blue toolbox and pulling out a clipboard. "Mechanics are my specialty." He floated over to King Dedede. "Sign here, please." Escargoon swiped the keyboard and scribbled his name as well as Dedede's (since King Dedede can't spell), then handed it back. "Thank you." He floated back to his toolbox and put the clipboard away. "My employers will contact you shortly." He said as he picked up the box.

"Huh? What are you talkin' about? You fixed my machine and you get paid. What more do you want outta me?" Dedede asked.

"Oh, it's not what I WANT from YOU. It's what you'll GET from US." Magolor said mysteriously.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Escargoon asked. "This had better not be a lifetime commitment plan!"

"I just have something to say to you. If you feel the ground shake, find Kirby. He'll have something you'll want." Magolor then saluted. "Toodles!" A blue circle appeared underneath him, which then caused him to teleport out.

Escargoon sniffed twice. "I smell a blue-furred rat."

"Nah, that's me. Two weeks of no showers, and counting! Heh heh heh heh!" Dedede laughed. Escargoon plugged his nose as the ruler of Dream Land walked off. Dedede strolled through the halls of his castle, smirking. "Heh heh. Ground shakin'? Kirby has somethin' I want? I think Egg Boy might've lost a bit of brainpower from all those weldin' fumes!" All of a sudden, the king heard a loud BOOM… and he felt the ground shake, knocking him over to the ground. "…Or maybe Egg Boy's psychic!" He quickly got to his feet and rushed back the way he came.

*A Little Earlier*

"Incoming, Tiff!" Tuff cried as he threw the football toward his sister.

As Tiff threw the ball herself, something caught Marx's eye. Looking to the sky, he saw a twinkle before something white came into view… streaking straight toward them. His already big eyes went even bigger. "SPACE DEBRIS, COMIN' AT US!"

Everyone looked up and recoiled in fear. "RUN!" Tiff yelled, her and the others running away from the intended impact zone. However, Kirby, who had grabbed the football, was dancing happily unaware. "Kirby, look out!"

"Poyo?" Kirby wondered. He looked in the direction of the incoming object, and immediately freaked out, dropping the football.

_**BOOM!**_

The impact caused a powerful explosion that, while the others were thankfully out of range of, sent Kirby flying into the nearby forest. "KIRBY!" Tiff cried.

"Aw, man… That ain't good." Marx groaned.

"We gotta help him! Come on!" Tuff told them, heading toward the forest with the others right behind him. However, unbeknownst to them, a bright white glow erupted from within the forest.

At the same time, King Dedede's limo drove out through the drawbridge and down the path leading into town. "Heh heh heh heh! I knew Mabogor was on to somethin'! Whatever that flash of light was, it's gotta be somethin' I want!"

"You can't even read your fortune cookies! Why do you think that gearhead knows what he's talkin' about?" Escargoon complained, only to get himself whacked on the head.

"'Cuz when a gearhead's talkin', he knows what he's talkin' about!" Dedede replied. "Kirby's got ahold of somethin'… and I know I want it!"

*In The Forest*

Various calls of Kirby's name were heard as the gang searched every nook and cranny of the forest. "Kirby! Where are you?!" Tuff cried.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Spikehead called, looking behind a bush.

"You up for a game of Marco Poyo?" Marx shouted, hopping across some trees. "Marco!" No answer. "It was worth a shot."

"Keep looking!" Tiff cried, moving through the brush.

"We'll get a bird's eye view!" Fololo said as he and Falala took to the air.

"What was that thing that crashed into Kirby?" Iro asked as he moved through the forest.

"It certainly ain't something good, I know that much!" Marx replied.

Tiff looked behind bushes and trees frantically trying to find the pink puffball._ 'Kirby… please be all right!'_ After everything that had happened to Dream Land, Kirby became a big part of everyone's lives. The thought that he might actually be gone…

Tiff then heard something: "Ooooohhhhhhhh…"

"Huh?" The girl followed the sound of the groan. She heard the same voice groan a couple more times, which helped her follow the source. As she moved a bush out of the way, she gasped at what she found. Lying on the forest floor was a young boy of her own species, seemingly the same age as her. He had very pale skin, which Tiff would've thought meant he was dead if it wasn't for the fact that he had rosy cheeks. His hair was similar to her brother's, but shorter, as his closed eyes were visible. The color of it seemed odd to her: It started as a light pink color on the top of his head, but it had six visible ridges counting that light pink, and on each ridge that went down the length of the hair, the pink color got darker. He wore a one-piece outfit like her own that was patterned with vertical dark pink and purple stripes (with a few light pink stripes), though the shoulders were purely dark pink. Lastly, he had red feet. Tiff quickly rushed over and shook him gently. "Hey, wake up!"

The boy groaned again as his eyes shook before they slowly opened, showing that they were large and dark blue in color. "H… Huh…?" His vision was blurry, but he slowly managed to focus, seeing Tiff clearly.

"Are you all right?" Tiff asked.

"I… I think so…" The boy said, slowly sitting up. Tiff thought his voice sounded a bit familiar. "…Who are you?"

"My name's Tiff. How long have you been out here?"

The boy groaned, holding his head. "I… I don't know. I… I can't remember anything. I don't even know who I am."

Tiff looked at him with sympathy. _'This poor kid…'_

"Tiff, did you find anything?" Tuff asked, finding her and the unknown boy. "Huh? Hey, who's he?"

"We don't know. He's got amnesia." Tiff explained.

"You said your name was Tiff, right?" The pink-haired boy asked. "While I was out cold, I kept hearing you and a bunch of others call out this name… Kirby. Who is this Kirby?"

"Kirby's a friend of ours. A strange object fell from the sky and knocked Kirby into this forest, and we've been trying to find him." Tiff explained.

"Oh… but you found me instead." The boy then jumped to his feet. "I'll help you find Kirby, provided he's still around here. You, what's your name?" He was looking at Tuff.

"I'm Tiff's sister, Tuff!" The dark-skinned boy chirped.

"Tiff and Tuff… Nice to meet you both." The pink-haired boy said with a smile.

"Now we just need to give you a name." Tiff said. She, Tuff, and the new boy started to think. "Hmm… How about 'Kibble'?"

"Kibble?" Both Tuff and the new boy asked.

"Well, to be honest, you remind me a lot of Kirby." Tiff said. "It just… I don't know, felt right to give you a similar name."

The boy thought for a moment. "Kibble…" He smiled. "I like it. Kibble it is."

"Then come on, Kibble! We gotta find Kirby!" Tuff said, rushing off.

"Wait up, Tuff!" Kibble cried, him and Tiff rushing after Tuff. "What exactly does Kirby look like?" He asked as they moved.

"Pink puffball, red feet, blue eyes! You can't miss him!" Tiff replied as she headed for another bush. "Kirby!"

Kibble took the idea and started looking. "Kirby! You out here anywhere?" He called. As he looked, he heard an odd noise. "Huh? Is that Kirby?" He followed the noise, but he emerged from the forest and slammed into the grill of a car, with two headlights on the front. He wobbled backwards and landed on his rear, rubbing his face. "Ow…"

"Hey, watch where you're goin', kid!" A voice spoke. Kibble backed up and saw a blue bird-like creature dressed in what looked like regal clothes in the passenger seat of the vehicle, which he noticed was a limousine, with a snail-like creature in the driver's seat.

"Um… Sorry, mister." Kibble apologized.

"That's 'King Dedede' to you! You may not be anyone we know, but you should know the king when you see him!" Escargoon snapped.

Kibble's eyes widened. "K-K-K-K-KING Dedede?!" He quickly bowed on one knee. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty! I don't even know this place! I-I don't even know who I am!"

"Kibble?" Tiff called out. Kibble looked back and saw her, Tuff, and the others rush out of the forest.

Marx took one look at King Dedede and gave a half-lidded look. "Oh, great, King Dedede. What are you doing here, tubby?"

"Why are you talking like that? This is a king we're dealing with!" Kibble cried.

Marx bounced over to him. "Lemme clue you in on something: This 'king' is a jerk. Nobody except for his servants and Escargoon over there respects him, not that he deserves any respect."

"I can hear you, ya know!" King Dedede yelled.

"That's the point, buddy!" Marx jeered.

"We THOUGHT he became a better person, but he's still the same jerk as always." Tiff said. Kibble wasn't sure what to believe, looking back at Dedede.

"Ah, I ain't got time to listen to this! I gotta find Kirby, so outta my way!" The king said.

"What do you want with him?" Tiff demanded to know.

"That ain't none of your business! I'm the king here, so I ain't gotta explain myself!"

The group, sans Kibble, stood firm. "Back off, Dedede! We can't find Kirby anywhere in there! We gotta make sure he's all right!" Tuff said.

"That's fine by me, but some psychic egg boy said Kirby's got somethin' I want, so step aside before I-" Dedede was cut off by a multicolored ball hitting him in the fact. "OOF!"

The ball bounced back toward Marx, who stopped it with his foot. "Nasty slice kick, huh?"

King Dedede was mad now. "Why, you little juggle ball!" He pushed a button on the limo's control panel, causing a large mallet to come out of the car. "Let's see how you bounce when you're flat as paper! Floor it!" Escargoon hit the gas, speeding the limo right toward Marx.

Marx immediately felt his own words biting him in the rear, looking in fear as the car approached him. "Aw, man…" However, he was quickly pushed off his ball out of range of the mallet by Kibble, who quickly grabbed the ball and held it up in the mallet's range as it swung down. Humorously, when the mallet struck the ball, it bounced clean off and swung back, slamming Escargoon in the head.

"Why is it that I'm always the nail for the hammer…?" The poor snail asked as the mallet retracted into the car.

Kibble was glaring at Dedede as he tossed Marx's ball back to him. "You really are a jerk!" He snapped. "These nice people went into the forest looking for their good friend who was struck by a meteor, but all they found was me, a boy with no memory! Can't you feel even the slightest bit of sympathy for either them or their lost friend Kirby?"

"Kibble…?" Tiff breathed.

Kibble let out an angry sigh. "Now that I know just who you are, you lost all respect I might've had for you. But I'm feeling civil right now, so I'm offering you a deal. Back off now, and if we find Kirby, we'll give you whatever it is you're looking for. Deal?"

King Dedede and Kibble had a brief staredown, neither of them buckling. "You definitely got a lot of guts, kid. Escargoon, we're outta here!" Escargoon turned the car around. "You got 'til tomorrow to find Kirby, or I'm ravagin' that forest! Heh heh heh heh!" The limo sped off back toward the castle, Kibble glaring at it as it retreated.

"How did that jerk ever become ruler of Dream Land?" Kibble asked.

"He likes to think he's the ruler, but no one ever listens to him." Fololo said.

"He's just a fat guy with a fatter ego." Falala added.

"…If he's being serious, though, we have to hurry. Unless Kirby somehow wandered off, he's still in there, and we've gotta find him before tomorrow!" Kibble said. "Come on!" He led the others back into the forest.

*A Little Later* *King Dedede's Castle*

King Dedede and Escargoon strolled back into the throne room, Escargoon holding an ice pack to his throbbing head. "Maybe you should've had that mechanic work on the limo so it wouldn't hit me." He groaned.

"Hmph." Dedede hopped back on his throne. "That pink kid sent a weird vibe up my back. Almost like I should know him. I don't know why." All of a sudden, a beeping was heard from the control panel on his throne. Dedede pushed the flashing button, which caused the video screen to emerge from the wall. "Hey, I didn't know Mabogor fixed this thing!"

"He must like all-nighters." Escargoon added.

The screen then flashed on, showing Magolor himself on the other end. _"Ah, greetings, King Dedede! Thank you for answering my call. Welcome to Lorxram Express, top servant-delivery system in the galaxy!"_

"Servant-delivery system? I don't recall signing up for this!" Dedede griped.

Magolor laughed. _"Obviously Escargoon didn't read the fine print!"_ He held up the clipboard that Escargoon signed. _"By contacting me to repair your systems, you were automatically signed up for our free 100-Man Trial Program!"_

"There wasn't anything like that in the contract!" Escargoon shouted.

"Well, I don't care if you're more legit than Nightmare Enterprises, you ain't gettin' a single D-bill outta me for any of your 'servants'!" Dedede snapped while shaking his fist.

_"Ho ho ho ho, you misunderstand me, my liege!"_ Magolor chuckled. _"We here at Lorxram Express are dedicated to making sure our customers are satisfied. That's why WE'RE still in business, and Nightmare Enterprises went down the toilet. Our 100-Man Trial Program works as such: All you do is pay us for all the repairs I did to your castle, which does come out to a quite sizable amount of D-bills."_ A payment number appeared on-screen, making Dedede and Escargoon growl. _"In return, however, the first 100 deliveries you order using our system will be free of charge. That's right, King Dedede!"_ He somehow pushed the payment number off-screen and pressed his face against the monitor. _"You won't owe us a single coin!"_

"I won't?!" King Dedede asked with a grin.

_"Not at all! 'It's all for the customer!' That's the motto of Lorxram Express!"_ Magolor said with a swipe of his hand and a wink. _"Our trained monster servants are designed to suit whatever your needs may be!"_

"Escargoon, did you hear that? I can order monsters again! Heh heh heh heh!" Dedede chirped, unknowingly knocking Escargoon on the head multiple times with his fist.

"I'm all aflutter with joy…" Escargoon said in a daze.

The point of view switched to Magolor's side of the screen, showing him at his control panel. "Excellent! I'm glad to hear you'll be using our services!" Magolor said, clapping his hands together. "Now then, as per the provisions of the contract, you can't actually order anything today since the repairs were completed today. But contact me tomorrow with whatever you need, and it'll be here before you know it! Ta-ta!" Magolor cut out the transmission, turning around to face a shadowed figure. "Well… that was easier than I thought."

"Dealing with eNeMeE must've lowered his guard." The shadowed figure said. "You were lucky, Magolor. Our scouts told us that it did indeed land on that planet."

"Ribbon thought she was so smart. All life gravitates to Pop Star in the end." Magolor said. "Rest assured, Master, one of the monsters in this Trial Program will retrieve it."

"I trust your judgment, Magolor. You have not steered me wrong before." The shadowed figure mused. "I just hope that HE doesn't get in our way."

"Even if HE decides to fight, the minute we retrieve that jewel, no one will be able to stop you." Magolor assured.

"This… is going to be very amusing…" The shadowed figure mused, letting out a distorted laugh.

*Later That Day*

The group dragged themselves out of the forest, all tired and dirty. The sun was beginning to set. "It's no use… We've looked everywhere, but we still haven't found him…" Fololo panted. "Kirby must not be in there anymore…"

"But… where could he go?" Falala wondered.

"Is something the matter?" A familiar deep voice. The group turned to see, accompanied by his signature Spanish guitar theme, the cloaked form of Meta Knight.

"Meta Knight!" Tiff cried.

"So this is that Meta Knight that you told me about." Kibble said.

"Hmm?" Meta Knight heard Kibble and turned to see him. The blue knight approached the pink boy, his eyes still seemingly devoid of emotion like always. They turned to a shimmering green color as he examined Kibble, but quickly faded to a purple color. "I do not recognize you… Who are you?"

"I don't know, sir. Tiff found me in the forest, but I have no memory of who I am or where I came from." Kibble admitted. "Tiff gave me the name 'Kibble' so that I at least have a name."

"I see…" Meta Knight breathed. "Perhaps Kabu knows who you are."

Kibble was confused. "Kabu is a prophet here in Dream Land. He knows a lot of things we don't." Tiff told him.

"Some of his knowledge surpasses even my own." Meta Knight said.

"Hmm… If Kabu knows so much… maybe he knows where Kirby is, too." Kibble deduced.

"Kirby? What happened to Kirby?" Meta Knight asked.

"He's missing. From what Tiff told me, a strange meteorite crashed into the ground and flung Kirby into the forest. We've searched for hours, but we found no trace of him anywhere." Kibble explained.

Meta Knight let out a gasp, his eyes briefly flashing red. "That can't be good… Even with all his training, Kirby's infant mind makes it likely that he couldn't survive on his own out here."

"Then let's hurry and ask Kabu where Kirby is! Come on!" Tuff led the way, followed by everyone, Meta Knight included.

"You seem a lot more helpful than you were described." Kibble said to Meta Knight as they ran.

"Though Kirby has proven himself strong, he is not yet mature enough to survive the world on his own." Meta Knight replied. "I have helped Kirby greatly against eNeMeE… He is partly my responsibility." Kibble nodded, but he couldn't help but feel a twinge of suspicion at this odd warrior's words.

*Valley of Kabu*

**"I already know why you are here… Kirby, the Star Warrior that protected Dream Land from eNeMeE, has vanished from sight."** Kabu's voice echoed.

"Tell us, Kabu. Do you know where he is?" Meta Knight asked.

**"Kirby's energy has been eclipsed by a new energy that I do not recognize. When I try to sense Kirby, this energy is all I can see."** Kabu explained.

Tiff gulped. "…Does that mean you don't know where he is?"

**"I am afraid that is exactly what I mean."** Kabu replied. Everyone looked rather glum. **"However, the Warp Star within me still glows with life. It is a sign: Kirby has not yet perished."**

A few deep breaths came from everyone._ 'Warp… Star…'_ Kibble thought. Then, another thought came to him. "Kabu, you said that when you try to sense Kirby, all you see is this new energy. Where is this new energy?"

**"The new energy I sense… is coming from you."** Kabu said, shocking Kibble.

"M… Me?"

**"Yes… I do not know exactly who you are… but the energy that prevents me from locating Kirby is emanating from you."**

Kibble gulped, his already pale skin seeming to pale even more. "It's… MY fault we can't find Kirby? Why?! How could this be my fault?!" Kabu had fallen silent. "Answer me, Kabu!" Kibble begged, his eyes starting to tear. Still no response. Kibble fell to his knees, sobbing. "Please… why me…?"

Tiff walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Kibble… I'm sure it isn't REALLY your fault…"

"It is! You heard Kabu! Whatever's keeping Kirby from being found is coming from me!" Kibble cried, sobbing. "But… why…? Why me…?" Tiff couldn't stand seeing this boy crying, kneeling down and hugging him. Kibble immediately returned the hug, crying on her shoulder. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't be… It isn't your fault." Tiff told him.

"Yeah, you wouldn't do this on purpose, would ya?" Tuff asked.

"N… No…" Kibble breathed.

"Whatever the problem is, you obviously have no control over it." Marx said. "Chin up! We'll find Kirby no matter what!"

"Easy for you to say…" Kibble said. His sobs had stopped, but he was still in a state of moping.

Meta Knight's eyes briefly changed to a dark gray color before fading back to yellow. "…It is getting late. You should all return home and rest." The knight departed with that.

"Meta Knight's right. Let's head home, everyone." Tiff said, helping Kibble to his feet. "You're coming with me and Tuff, Kibble. You're staying in our wing of King Dedede's castle."

Kibble sniffed. "Th-Thanks, Tiff… I'm glad my first contact was a group of nice people." He allowed himself a small yet sad smile.

*King Dedede's Castle*

"Here you go, darling." Lady Like said as she placed a tray of tea and sandwiches in front of Kibble in Tiff's family's living quarters.

"Thank you, ma'am." Kibble said, slowly taking a sandwich. "Tiff and Tuff certainly have kind parents. That must be where they get it from."

Sir Ebrum laughed. "You're certainly a stand-up young boy yourself, Kibble! Tiff told us how you actually stood up to King Dedede today!"

"Dedede showed no sympathy for them for losing Kirby. It made me sick." Kibble said, biting into his sandwich.

"You should've seen him! He just knocked the hammer on Dedede's limo back without even blinking!" Tuff chirped. "Escargoon's probably still got a headache from it!"

As Tuff laughed from the memory, Kibble munched on his sandwich and looked around the room before spotting something on an end table. Getting up, he walked over and saw a picture frame, picking it up. The frame depicted Tiff, Tuff, a large array of friends they had made, and in the center, a pink puffball with red feet and blue eyes. Tiff noticed him and walked over to him. "Is that him?" Kibble asked, pointing to the puffball.

"Yeah… that's Kirby." Tiff said.

"When you said I reminded you of him, I didn't understand it. Now I can see it. We have the same feet, the same eyes, the same cheeks… even the same pink color scheme." Kibble said. He placed the picture back on the table. "Kirby… Don't worry. I'll make sure Tiff and her friends find you. I promise." Tiff smiled. Whoever Kibble was, he had a good heart.

Then, a knock was at the door, which Lady Like answered. Waddle Doo was on the other end. "His Majesty wanted me to deliver this. Something for a kid named 'Kibble' or whatever it was."

"King Dedede sent that?" Tuff asked.

"I smell something rotten." Tiff said, walking toward the package. Opening the box, a mystified Tiff pulled out a pair of dark pink pajamas. "Huh?" She examined the pajamas inside and out, finding nothing wrong.

"King Dedede said 'the new kid might as well be comfortable'." Waddle Doo said before walking off.

"Hold on." Kibble said, stopping Waddle Doo. He took the pajamas from Tiff, smiling. "Tell King Dedede I said thanks. Maybe he's not such a complete jerk." Waddle Doo saluted and headed off. Tiff still seemed suspicious.

*Middle of the Night*

The entire castle was dead asleep, including Kibble, who was wearing the pajamas Dedede sent to him and was sleeping on Sir Ebrum and Lady Like's couch with an extra pillow and blanket. However, in the castle's throne room, the delivery system whirred to life with no one there, electricity crackling as something was transported in. The lightning stopped, leaving behind two blobs of dark energy. They floated off of the ground and hovered for a moment before taking off through the castle. They darted through the castle's hallways before one found the door to King Dedede's bedroom and the other to Escargoon's room, slipping under the doors' cracks. They hovered in view of the snoring Dedede and Escargoon, a low hum coming from their bodies…

*The Next Day*

"Come on, let's hurry!" Tiff cried as she, Tuff, Kibble, Fololo, Falala, and Marx headed toward the forest where Kirby landed, hoping they could try and find him again.

However, a powerful burst of flame shot out from the forest, nearly missing everyone as they jumped out of the way. "What the heck was that?!" Marx yelled.

"Oh no… Don't tell me King Dedede was serious!" Kibble said worriedly.

"Heh heh heh heh! Well, look who showed up!" King Dedede's obnoxious voice laughed as his limo drove up, Escargoon in the driver's seat.

"What are you up to, Dedede?" Tiff asked.

"Didn't I tell ya? You couldn't find Kirby, so I'm ravagin' that forest to find him!" Dedede said with a grin.

"But… if you're out here… then what's in there?" Kibble asked, pointing to the forest.

Dedede laughed again. "That would be a little new friend of mine…" He held out a hand toward the forest. "BATAFIRE!" At that moment, a huge fireball shot out of the forest into the air, darting around before floating down near Dedede's limo. Two large orange bat wings sprouted from within the flames, two small pointy red ears appeared from the top, and right underneath those ears, a small cat-like formed, letting out a screech.

"Is that a…?!" Fololo started.

"M-M-MONSTER?!" Falala finished.

"HEH HEH HEH HEH! That psychic egg boy fixed up my monster-orderin' device and gave me 100 free monsters!" Dedede told them. "I ordered a monster that could tear through a forest with no problem, and I got Batafire here, a livin' fireball!" Batafire had a quaint smile on its face as it looked down at the shocked kids. However, when it laid eyes on Kibble, its tiny eyes widened. In its own vision, something glowed within Kibble's stomach. Batafire then let out a loud, angry screech. "Huh? What's your problem, Batafire?" Batafire ignored Dedede and immediately dive-bombed toward Kibble.

"YIKES!" Kibble cried, quickly running to get out of Batafire's range. A final jump helped Kibble avoid being hurt when Batafire slammed into the ground, causing a slight burst of flame on impact.

"You all right, Kibble?" Tiff asked as she and Tuff helped him up.

"Yeah, I'm all right!" Kibble replied, looking back. Batafire dislodged itself from the ground, shook its "head", then turned to face them. Shooting into the air, Batafire covered itself with its wings before shooting them out, causing a rain of fireballs to come sailing down.

"Run!" Tiff cried, pulling Kibble along as the group tried to dodge the burning rain.

However, the fireballs also started to come down near the limo, making Dedede and Escargoon yell in fear. "Floor it, Escargoon!"

"I'm floorin', I'm floorin'!" Escargoon cried as he punched the gas, driving the limo out of the path of the fireballs, coming to a screeching halt as Batafire started chasing the kids.

A beeping was heard on the dashboard of Dedede's limo, and Escargoon pushed the button, causing a newly-installed video screen on the dashboard to turn on and show Magolor._ "So, Your Majesty, how is Batafire performing for you?"_

"He's one firecracker of a monster, that's for sure!" Dedede cried.

_"Oh, dear. He used his fireball rain attack, didn't he?"_ Magolor asked, getting a frantic nod from both of them. _"I could've sworn that he was trained not to do that around the person who ordered him."_

"That's not all! That flying rodent just went nuts and started attacking people! Not that we're complaining about that, but it almost hit us!" Escargoon cried.

Dedede smacked him on the head. "So what? My monsters did that all the time last time!"

_"That isn't right. You didn't order Batafire to fight anyone!"_ Magolor cried. _"He shouldn't be attacking, unless…"_ He gasped. _"You didn't happen to find Kirby yet, did you?"_

"No." Dedede and Escargoon said at the same time.

Magolor was silent for a moment. _"…He's found it."_

"Found what?" Dedede asked. "Answers, Egg Boy!"

_"…Follow Batafire! You might find out!"_ Magolor said, cutting off the transmission.

"I swear, each time we sign up for something, we never get straight answers." Escargoon complained.

Dedede laughed. "Maybe not, but somethin's tellin' me that things are gonna get crazy!" He made Escargoon drive after Batafire.

Speaking of Batafire, the flaming bat chased after the kids, lining itself up with them on ground level before charging forward, Tuff and Kibble dodging. "What is up with this thing?!" Marx shouted.

"Split up!" Tiff cried. The group broke off into three groups: Tiff and Kibble went one way, Tuff and Marx another, Fololo and Falala into the air. Batafire wasn't distracted at all, immediately turning to follow Tiff and Kibble.

Kibble was scared out of his mind as Batafire chased them. "Any bright ideas, Tiff?!" He cried.

Tiff had one, but she wasn't sure if it was a good idea. 'Kirby's not here… but it's the only chance we've got!' She gulped. "…Kabu, send the Warp Star!"

A pulse went through Kibble's head._ 'Warp… Star…?'_

**"WARP STAR!"** Kabu's voice echoed as his mouth opened. The golden star levitated into view before shooting into the air, locating Tiff and Kibble before floating near them, enlarging to a rideable size.

Tiff hopped onto the Warp Star. "Come on!" She cried, helping Kibble on board before stepping on part of the Warp Star and directing it into the air, Kibble hanging on to prevent himself from falling. Batafire looked confused before looking at them, screeching in anger before taking off after them.

Kibble's mind was running circles. Something about this item, the Warp Star… it felt familiar to him. And the way Tiff called out for it also sounded familiar. Then, an image flashed in his mind: A first-person view of himself riding the Warp Star._ 'Is this… a memory?'_ Batafire's screech cut him off as Tiff made the Warp Star dodge his flaming tackle, then another one. Another memory flashed within his mind: Him facing a tentacled creature by shooting fire at it, also in first-person. _'These memories… Who am I?!'_ Batafire then shot up and unleashed another rain of fireballs, which streaked down across the land. One fireball struck a rock that the Warp Star was near, causing an explosion that sent the Warp Star into a spin-out.

"WAAAAAAH!" Tiff and Kibble cried as the Warp Star was sent spiraling towards the ground.

King Dedede's limo sped forward as they watched the Warp Star descend. "Bat's eye bulls-eye!" Escargoon said.

The Warp Star crashed into the ground, sending the two kids tumbling along the ground, the Warp Star itself being reduced to tiny size and landing in Tiff's hand. "Ngh…" Kibble groaned as he picked himself up.

"Tiff! Kibble!" Tuff's voice cried as he and the others rushed to their location. However, Batafire swooped down and drug its boy across the ground, keeping them away with a wall of fire. The flaming bat loomed over Tiff and Kibble, glaring at them.

The limo pulled up to the scene. "Heh heh heh heh! Batafire's one persistent piece of pyro!" Dedede laughed.

"I've wanted to see this happen ever since that Kibble kid backtalked to us!" Escargoon added.

Kibble quickly rushed to Tiff, picking her up off the ground. "Tiff, we need to hurry- huh?" He noticed Tiff was crying. "T-Tiff?"

Her hand gripped the Warp Star. "I'm sorry… Kirby…" She sobbed. "I couldn't… find you…" Then, the Warp Star began to glow, surprising and aweing her as well as the others.

The glow washed over Kibble, causing something else to glow within him. "H-Huh?!" As the glows merged, images flashed throughout Kibble's mind, showing numerous events that had happened._ 'All these events… they're events that Tiff told me about! I'm seeing them through someone's eyes…'_ The images then switched from first-person to showing Kirby taking part in them. _'Kirby? These happened to Kirby…? But why do I feel like it's me…?'_ Then, another image flashed, showing the white meteorite falling to Earth, Kirby freaking out. However, something ended up flying inside Kirby's mouth right before the explosion that sent him into the forest. _'Wait…'_ An image showed Kirby lying on the forest floor before something glowed within him, turning his body completely white._ 'These aren't just Kirby's memories…'_ His body morphed, forming a main body, longer arms… and a defined head._ 'Th… That's it…'_ His eyes in real life closed slowly… before opening in a determined look. "Tiff… Get behind me."

"Kibble…?" Tiff asked.

"Trust me." Kibble said, stepping forward. Staring up at Batafire, he held out his arms as if welcoming an attack.

"Hahahahahahaha! Kibble must've given up!" Escargoon laughed.

"Batafire, give us another fireball rain!" Dedede ordered. Screeching, Batafire pulled its wings over itself before unleashing another storm of fireballs.

Narrowing his eyes, Kibble put his arms by his sides and took a deep breath, puffing his cheeks. Then, he curled up his body and rapidly moved his feet before leaping forward… and unleashing a powerful suction breath.

Everyone gasped as the suction breath caused powerful wind around the whole area, Batafire screeching and flapping its wings in order to keep from being pulled in. "No way… That's Inhale!" Marx cried.

"But how can he do that?!" Tuff asked. The fireballs were all caught in the suction breath, being pulled toward the inhaling Kibble, all of them turning into thin streams of energy.

Tiff watched in utter shock as the streams went into Kibble's mouth one-by-one as he kept inhaling. It finally clicked with her. "…It's him…" The suction breath finally finished, the pink-haired boy gulping down what he just ate. The boy then smiled before he leapt into the air.

*Transformation Scene*

Kibble backflipped rapidly in the starry sky before righting himself, and with a glow behind him, a familiar six-sided emerald formed side-by-side at a faster rate than normal, with Kibble still on-screen. The emerald and crown hooked onto Kibble's head, then he pointed the top of his head toward the screen. Flames burst from the crown, covering the screen, then the flames were whipped out of the view area by Kirby raising his head. Kibble's outfit had changed from his striped design to a red-and-orange flame pattern with red shoulders, his feet had become bright red, and his pale skin had returned to the same pink as his puffball form. The transformation was complete when the flames Kibble moved out of the way, rather than pointing upwards, came down to right above his feet and started flowing like long hair, Kibble himself sporting a confident grin.

*End Scene*

King Dedede and Escargoon were whimpering off to the side. "E-Escargoon… Please tell me you saw that!"

"I did, sire… That kid has the same powers as Kirby!" Escargoon replied.

"Not quite, Escargoon!" The boy said, making them realize he knew they were there. He was smirking at them. "I don't just have Kirby's powers. I may look like this, but puffball or not…" He pointed to himself with his thumb. "I AM Kirby!"

"Kibble was Kirby the whole time?!" Tuff cried, himself, Marx, Fololo, and Falala all in shock.

"Kirby…" Tiff breathed. Now she knew why his voice sounded familiar: It was Kirby's voice, only it sounded slightly older. "But, why do you look like that?"

"I'll tell ya later. Right now, I've got some wings to clip." Kirby said, looking up at Batafire. "Hey, Batafire! Wanna dance?" He took a quick breath before unleashing an orange fire breath that struck Batafire in the face. Despite being a fireball, Batafire was clearly being hurt by it. Screeching, the bat dove right toward him, but Kirby kneeled down, causing his fiery hair to start waving. "Burning… ATTACK!" He suddenly shot into the air, completely cloaked in flames, screaming right toward Batafire. The two burning entities impacted each other, but Kirby's flames proved too strong, causing Batafire to be the one who was sent backwards, landing on the ground with Kirby landing right after. Kirby looked at his hands. "Wow… This new body rules! I feel stronger than I ever was as Fire Kirby before!" He looked over at the wall of fire keeping the others out and used Inhale, sucking all of the flames like they were nothing.

"Thanks for the cooldown, Kirby!" Fololo called.

"Yeah, my ribbon was starting to melt!" Falala added.

"Anytime! Tiff, get with the group! I can handle this!"

"Okay!" Tiff said, rushing toward the others.

Kirby then eyed Batafire trying to get up. "Let's see how Batafire likes a taste of his own medicine!" Puffing his cheeks, Kirby jumped and unleashed a stream of fireballs from his mouth, pummeling Batafire further into the ground.

"Yeah, Kirby! Take him down!" Tuff shouted, the others also cheering for him.

However, Batafire was getting angrier with each hit. Finally, it let out a loud screech and immediately charged toward Kirby, impacting him with a flaming tackle. "AGH!" Kirby was flung back a bit, but he managed to backflip a bit. He shook his head. "Now that was spicy!" He saw Batafire raise itself into the air, glaring daggers. Kirby merely smiled. "Come on, can't you tackle better than that?"

"Where's all that confidence coming from?" Tiff wondered.

Batafire screeched again before diving straight toward Kirby, its flaming body going wild with rage. "Come on… A little further…" Kirby mused to himself. He could almost see Batafire's angry pupils as it screamed downward like a meteor. "That's it… Come at me!" Kirby clenched his fists and curled up his body, causing his hair to wave wildly. Another angry screech came from Batafire, Kirby's friends looking scared while Dedede and Escargoon were grinning. "Fireball…" Fire started to cover Kirby's body as Batafire was inches away from him. "INFERNO!" Kirby stood straight up and shot his arms upwards, causing a powerful burst of flames that covered his body. The burst was large enough to catch Batafire in the blast, making it screech loudly in pain as it was forced upwards by the force of the flames. Its body pulsed in and out as it yelled in pain before it finally swelled up like a balloon before completely exploding, releasing a veil of cinders that slowly floated toward the ground, almost like victory confetti.

"HURRAY!" Kirby's friends all cheered in the face of Kirby's victory.

"I'm gonna miss Batafire's cute little face!" Dedede said while bawling.

"The best things always go up in flames!" Escargoon cried along with him.

Kirby closed his eyes as his body glowed white, and when the glow faded, he was back in his normal form. He felt something come up his throat, making him cough a moment before coughing up a weird star-shaped figure that was red with a darker red rim, the image of a flame visible in the center, which floated in front of him. "I wonder what this thing is?" He said to himself. He didn't get a chance to figure out, though, as the star merely vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Great work, Kirby!" Tiff said as the others rushed over to him.

"Heh heh heh… thanks, everyone." Kirby said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Amazing…" Meta Knight's voice was heard. Kirby turned to see the knight approaching. "It seems you have transformed… Possibly even evolved. But I don't understand it: Just a day ago, I couldn't tell who you were at all. Now one look at you tells me you are Kirby. Kabu can now sense your energy again as well."

"I don't know the whole story myself, Meta Knight." Kirby said. "One moment I have no memory of who I am, then I see the Warp Star glow in Tiff's hand, which made something within ME glow… and next thing I know, all my memories came back!"

"What happened with that meteorite, Kirby? Do you remember that?" Tiff asked.

"Yeah… Yeah, I do. I don't know what that thing was… but while I was freaking out, I ended up eating it. Then the explosion happened, knocking me into the air, which also made me swallow it. I landed in the forest, and something glowed within me… turning me into, well, this." Kirby gestured to his new form.

"Any way you can spit it back up?" Marx asked.

"I… never really figured out how to spit up stuff I already swallowed. It might not look too good with this new body, anyway." Kirby said. "I think I might be stuck like this."

"Doesn't sound like a bad thing to me." Fololo said.

"Yeah, since you can actually talk now, and all." Falala said.

"That is true. I also feel a lot stronger than I used to. If King Dedede's back to ordering monsters… then maybe I'll have an easier time dealing with them this time around."

"There may even be surprises lying in wait, Kirby." Meta Knight added. "Not even I know where that new monster came from… but there is indeed a new threat on the horizon."

"Don't worry, Meta Knight." Kirby assured him. "I'll be ready. But for now, I think we've got some, eh heh, re-introductions to make, don't we?" He started laughing, which quickly spread to the others (even Meta Knight managed a chuckle), and a star-shaped iris out panned on Kirby's new head, which stopped laughing for a moment to give a wink before it fully closed.

*Meanwhile*

"Im...possible..." Magolor breathed, watching secretly recorded footage of Kirby facing Batafire. "This was the only thing that could have gone wrong... why did it have to happen?!"

"Why did WHAT have to happen?" The voice of Magolor's boss asked, startling him.

"Um..." Magolor decided lying as a bad idea, and he sighed. "Kirby... the Star Warrior who defeated eNeMeE... He has it."

"Why didn't Batafire simply take it, then?" His boss asked.

"No, I mean..." He showed his boss the footage of Kirby's new form. "He swallowed it."

Magolor's master was silent for a moment before firing a laser beam with a growl, destroying the monitor and scaring Magolor. "I was correct to not underestimate how much an utter fool could derail my plan... It seems we'll be doing more business with King Dedede after all. Wipe your fear off your face, Magolor. You are not at fault here. Make sure whoever goes next is prepared..."

Magolor shook for a moment, but bowed. "Yes... Master."

* * *

**Vile: And thus Episode 1 concludes, with Kirby now sporting his evolved form. This new form of his is a key plot element, and I will explain it in an upcoming chapter should I get there. I'm not sure I captured the anime's humor that well, since it was one heck of an act to follow. But if you guys liked this chapter and can handle Kirby's change, leave a review for me! I posted a picture of Kirby's new form on my dA if you can't quite get an idea of what he looks like now. If I get enough good reviews, I'll keep making new episodes. Ja ne for now, folks!**

**Computer Voice: Vile, logging out.**


	2. Gemras Gone Gonzo

**Vile: Wow, I'm surprised. I actually thought people weren't going to take Kirby's evolution very well.**

**Kirby: Not every fan of me is a purist. Heck, they think this new form of mine rocks!**

**Vile: Gotta love a fanbase that can actually be pleased. XD This might've taken about a week, but here's Chapter 2 of Kirby Season 2! I hope it doesn't seem too clunky in a few places.**

**Tiff: Clunky how?**

**Vile: I don't really know, Tiff. It's just that nagging feeling in the back of the head. Anyway, enjoy, folks!**

* * *

Kirby: Right Back At Ya! Next Season

Episode 2: Gemras Gone Gonzo

The star-shaped iris-in showed Castle Dedede just before noon, moving to the inside, specifically the kitchen. The refrigerator door opened up from a point-of-view inside, showing that Tuff opened it, with Kirby visible behind him opening a cupboard. "You sure King Dedede's got something good stashed away in here?" Kirby asked.

_**(Evolved Kirby Voice Actor: Makiko Ohmoto's normal Kirby voice, pitch-lowered to that of a boy the same age as Tiff)**_

"Definitely!" Tuff replied, rummaging through the fridge. "I've seen a stash of sweets and stuff with him a lot, and I know it's in here somewhere!"

"Good thing you learned the value of brushing your teeth, huh?" Kirby joked, he and Tuff laughing as they recalled the incident with the dental monster, specifically King Dedede freaking out. He and Tuff kept looking, Tuff giving up on the fridge, when Kirby gasped upon opening a cabinet. "Jackpot!" Tuff immediately rushed over as Kirby pulled out a big jar of sweets and candies. He and Tuff grinned at each other.

However, the sound of a door opening startled them, and Tuff looked around the corner to see Waddle Doo entering the area. "W-Waddle Doo!" He whisper-yelled, immediately getting his mouth clamped shut by Kirby.

"Shh! Calm down, Tuff! I've got an idea!" Kirby whistled. "Act natural."

A few seconds later, as Waddle Doo entered the kitchen, Kirby and Tuff strolled right by him, acting completely normal. "Eh?" Waddle Doo turned around, noticing that Kirby's cheeks were puffed up. Then again, this was Kirby, so Waddle Doo didn't think much of it. The boys, however, were a bit nervous, but calmed down when the captain gave a dismissing "Meh." Kirby and Tuff let out a breath (well, Kirby LOOKED like he did, but actually didn't) before heading off.

*Ebrum Family Living Quarters*

Kirby and Tuff enjoyed the spoils of their sneakiness on the couch, happily eating up King Dedede's stash. "You know, Tuff, this is another reason I like my new body." Kirby said.

"What's that?" Tuff asked, his mouth full.

Kirby unwrapped a piece of taffy. "Now that I have teeth, I know how cool it is to chew this stuff!" He popped the taffy into his mouth, eating it happily.

"Enjoying yourselves, you two?" Tiff asked suddenly, startling them.

Tuff was a little freaked, but Kirby merely gulped his taffy with a smile. "You bet! Want some?" He held out the jar.

"Where did you two get that?" Tiff wondered.

"King Dedede's private stash." Kirby said without missing a beat, eating another piece of candy.

"WHAT?! How did you get that here without getting caught?" Tiff asked, shocked. "Dedede's super-protective of that stuff!"

"Like this!" Kirby said, placing the lid back on the jar. Gulping what was in his mouth, Kirby used Inhale on the jar (and ONLY on the jar, surprisingly), causing the jar to become a thin stream of energy before going inside his mouth, making his cheeks puff up.

"Whoa…" Tiff breathed.

"Ain't it cool? Kirby can control his Inhale now!" Tuff chirped. "Watch what else he can do!" Kirby held his hands in front of him and spit out a yellow star, which hit his hands and reformed into the candy jar.

"Waddle Doo didn't have a clue." Kirby said, opening the jar again. "You sure you don't want any?"

"Come on, Tiff, eat something unhealthy for once!" Tuff added.

Tiff was blank-faced for a moment, but then she couldn't help but smile. "Any Strawberry Grunties left in there?" She asked as she hopped onto the couch.

"That's the spirit!" Tuff chirped as Tiff popped a piece of candy into her mouth.

The trio enjoyed the candy for a few minutes, but then Tiff had a thought. "Uh… What are you gonna do if King Dedede notices that his stash is gone?"

"Oh, don't worry. I can get it back as easily as I got it out." Kirby said, winking at Tiff.

*Later*

The same cabinet that held the sweets jar was opened, this time by King Dedede, who rummaged around before finding his secret stash, grabbing it with a grin. "Heh heh heh heh." He immediately opened it and reached inside. However, the minute he touched candy, he gained a look that was a combination of anger and surprise. "Wait a minute…" He felt around inside the jar, and a tic mark soon appeared on his face. "Someone's been riflin' through mah candy!" His next two words were a shout. "WADDLE DOO!"

It took him a minute or two, but the cyclopic Waddle Dee-like creature rushed into the kitchen. "Y-Yes, sire?"

"Someone went through mah candy!" Dedede griped, setting the jar roughly on the counter (without breaking it). "Why didn't anyone catch those rats? Where's the kitchen guard?"

"Well, I was here earlier to change out the guard. I didn't see anything suspicious." Waddle Doo explained. "Sure, Tuff and Kirby were here, but they didn't have your stash, si- Sire?" King Dedede was already storming off.

Soon enough, King Dedede burst into the Ebrum family's living quarters, startling Lady Like and Kirby, the latter falling off the couch. "Oh, my! King Dedede!"

"What brings you around here…?" Kirby groaned, picking himself up. Dedede stomped over and grabbed Kirby off the ground. "H-Hey!"

"Cough up all that candy you took, pinky!" Dedede snapped.

"Ugh! How many sardines did you eat for lunch?" Kirby griped, plugging his "nose".

"What's going on out here?" Tiff asked, her, Tuff, and Sir Ebrum rushing out. Kirby took the opportunity while he was distracted to conk Dedede on the head, making him drop him.

"I'll tell ya what's goin' on! Your brother and Kirby were in my candy stash!" Dedede growled.

"How were we supposed to get in there? We don't even know where you keep that thing!" Tuff yelled. He and Tiff shot an unseen glance at Kirby, who winked at them.

"Don't you play dumb with me! You're the only people my guards saw in the kitchen today!" Dedede shot.

"What guards? All we saw was Waddle Doo!" Kirby told him. "Don't pin this on us because your security isn't up to snuff!"

All of a sudden, Escargoon rushed into view. "Sire! Someone took your hammer! It's gone!"

"WHAT?! Why didn't anyone catch the thief?!"

"Because it wasn't stolen." Kirby said matter-of-factly, confusing everyone. He walked out of the room for a moment, then came back with Dedede's trademark hammer. "I borrowed it, with Waddle Doo present, so I could fix the leaky faucet yesterday. All it took was a few good wha-" The hammer was swiped, and Kirby was hit on the head, hard. "OW! What was that for?!"

"No one but me touches my things, especially not my hammer!" Dedede growled.

"What is your problem, Dedede? You're even MORE of a jerk than you used to be!" Kirby snapped. "You did a lot of nice things for Cappy Town, you softened up to me a few times, heck, you even helped us all get home after defeating eNeMeE! What happened to you?"

"Don't you go worryin' about how I act. I'm the king around here; I act however I darn well please!" King Dedede said, turning around to leave.

Kirby was a little miffed, but he had a funny thought, walking over and grabbing a wastebasket. "Oh, before you leave, Dedede." The king stopped and turned around, only to see Kirby jump with it. "Don't forget your wrappers!" He jammed the wastebasket on Dedede's head, covering him in the wrappers of the candy he and Tuff had eaten.

"Sire!" Escargoon cried. The king started blindly flailing about in a way that was too funny for Tiff, Tuff, and Kirby to resist laughing at him.

Finally, the king wrestled the basket off his head, noticing the wrappers. "So it WAS you!" He glared at Kirby. "That's it, pinky! I've had enough of this!" He chucked the wastebasket behind him, which landed on Escargoon's head. Kirby finally calmed down from laughing, looking at Dedede with an unthreatened smile. "I can't exile you from Cappy Town. I'm smart enough to know that's a bad idea. But I can do this!" Kirby was confused as Dedede pointed to the door. "I want you outta my castle, right now!"

"Kicking me out, huh? All right, I think you've suffered enough today." Kirby said, getting to his feet. "It's not that bad a punishment, anyway." Kirby headed toward the door. "I'll be back for dinner, guys!"

He was stopped by Escargoon pushing his hand against his face. "I don't think you get just what King Dedede means by 'get out'."

"Then explain it to me." Kirby said after pushing Escargoon's hand out of his face.

"It means I don't wanna see your pink-haired face in my castle ever again!" Dedede snapped. "You're banned from my castle for good!"

Tiff and her family gasped. "King Dedede, isn't that a little extreme?" Sir Ebrum asked.

"Yes, what if you have a problem that only Kirby can fix?" Lady Like added.

"King Dedede's more than capable of handling himself with minor problems." Escargoon said matter-of-factly. _'Even if he throws a big tantrum while he's tryin'.'_

"And just where is Kirby supposed to sleep at night?" Tiff asked angrily.

"Yeah! Tokkori took his house, and he can't exactly sleep in the tree anymore!" Tuff added.

"Don't sweat it, guys." Kirby said. "Let's not make Dedede have a heart attack. I'll leave for now." He headed out the door past Escargoon, still in view. "Who's gonna keep me out of the castle, anyway? The Waddle Dees?" He started walking away.

"Be sure to come back for roast turkey dinner tonight!" Lady Like called.

"Sure thing, ma'am!" Kirby called back from down the hallway.

Dedede stepped into the hallway, him and Escargoon glaring at Kirby. "Escargoon, tell Waddle Doo to get the Waddle Dees ready by the front entrance. If Kirby tries to get back in here, tell Waddle Doo to have them charge."

"Yes, sire." Escargoon replied, heading off down another hallway.

Unnoticed by anyone, Dedede's eyes briefly turned yellow before fading back to normal. _'You think you're SO tough now, dontcha, Kirby? Let's see how you take on my army!'_

As Kirby headed out of the castle, he heard Tiff shout "Hang on, Kirby!" He turned to see Tiff and Tuff running after him, Fololo and Falala with them. "You're not worried about King Dedede kicking you out of the castle?"

"He couldn't do that if he tried, Tiff!" Tuff told her. "You saw how fast Kirby took down Batafire that day! Imagine if he went Hammer Kirby on King Dedede!"

Kirby laughed at him. "Easy, Tuff! But he's right, Tiff. King Dedede doesn't have what it takes to keep me out of here. I was strong enough to beat eNeMeE as a puffball. What can he do to me now?"

"I guess you're right… Still, I can't help but feel that something bad's going to happen." Tiff said.

"Ah, don't worry about it. Come on, the day's still early!" Kirby said, rushing off with Tuff right on his heels. Tiff laughed and chased after them.

The sun in the sky seemed to accelerate in order to turn the time from midday to near the evening. Kirby, Tiff, and Tuff strolled into the castle after a day of playing with their friends, accompanied by Fololo, Falala, and Marx. However, the minute they entered the entrance room, Waddle Doo dropped down and pointed his sword at them. "Don't move, Kirby!"

"Oh, great. What do you want, Waddle Doofus?" Marx jeered.

_**(Marx Voice Actor: Tara Strong as Omi from Xiaolin Showdown)**_

"As per King Dedede's order, Kirby is no longer allowed in this castle!" Waddle Doo explained. "The rest of you are still allowed, but Kirby, you must turn back!"

Marx raised an eyebrow, slowly looking at Kirby. "And you planned to tell us this… when?"

"Let me handle this." Kirby said, stepping forward. "Look, Waddle Doo, does this really have to get ugly?"

"Only if you make it so! Waddle Dee Army, assemble!" Waddle Doo ordered. Slight rumbling was heard, and from the multiple doorways, numerous Waddle Dees stormed into the entrance room, lining up in multiple rows to block off access, all of them equipped with a spear. "As you can see, you're completely outnumbered, Kirby. This is your last chance to turn back!" Kirby only started laughing. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, Waddle Doo… Think about who you're talking to here." Kirby said, pointing at himself. "I could take you on without breaking a sweat." He started moving forward.

"Take one more step, and we charge!" Waddle Doo threatened. Smirking, Kirby stepped forward. "That's it! CHARGE!" Pointing their spears forward, the Waddle Dee Army stormed toward their target.

"Watch out, Kirby!" Fololo and Falala cried.

"Just what I was hoping you'd do!" Kirby stated.

"Huh?!" Waddle Doo gasped.

Taking a deep breath, Kirby puffed his cheeks and rapidly moved his feet before leaping forward and unleashing Inhale. The Waddle Dees began struggling against the wind before, one-by-one, they started turning into energy before shooting into Kirby's mouth. Despite them entering Kirby's mouth, he kept the Inhale coming, absorbing more and more of the Waddle Dees. "Whoa… What power!" Tiff breathed. Despite seeming like he was getting a bit tired, Kirby didn't give up, and before long, every single Waddle Dee that Waddle Doo had called was inhaled by Kirby, giving him very puffed-up cheeks, but only Waddle Doo stood against him now.

The lone soldier gained a huge sweatdrop on the side of his eye. "I… I don't… How did you…" He sputtered, at a loss for words. "L-L-Let them go!"

_'He asked for it.'_ Kirby thought. With a few beads of sweat forming on his face, Kirby spat out a HUGE yellow star that was orbited by smaller stars.

Waddle Doo's large pupil shrunk greatly at the incoming attack, his voice becoming meek as he uttered one phrase: "…I'm so fired."

_**BOOM!**_

The massive star slammed Waddle Doo right through the wall, but rather than actually smash through the wall, the star exploded on impact, becoming the large amount of Waddle Dees again. The soldiers began dropping back to the ground as if they were poured out of a cup, none of them moving, Waddle Doo falling on top of them with his eye X'ed out. Kirby panted a bit after that. "Whew… That took more out of me than I thought."

"Dude… That was awesome!" Marx shouted. "How did you do that?"

"My Inhale's become a lot stronger thanks to my new body. I can suck up a lot more than I used to be able to." Kirby told him. He wiped his forehead. "Well, so much for not breaking a sweat."

"What's all the commotion out here?!" Escargoon shouted. The snail rushed into the entrance hall. "If someone broke a suit of armor, I'll-" He cut himself off with a loud gasp as he saw the massive pile of unconscious Waddle Dees. "What in the?!" He looked over at the group, seeing Kirby standing in the front.

"Hi." Kirby said with a slight wave.

Escargoon immediately felt nervous as he looked away from the pink-haired boy and at the pile of unconscious Waddle Dee. Even with their numbers, they were all defeated and Kirby wasn't even scratched! Escargoon shuddered in fear, slowly looking back at Kirby. "Can we go back to our part of the castle now?" Tuff asked. The scared snail wisely moved away from the door that led to said part of the castle, letting the group move on.

Kirby looked back at the pile, then to Escargoon. "…I REALLY hope the medic wasn't anywhere in there. That was nasty." He told him as he left the entrance hall.

Escargoon was still half-freaked out of his shell. _'Oh dear… King Dedede's definitely not gonna like this!'_

*Ebrum Family Living Quarters*

"I say, Kirby, wasn't that a little… harsh?" Sir Ebrum asked as everybody took seats at the dinner table.

"Yeah… I guess it was." Kirby admitted, pulling his chair in. "The Waddle Dees didn't really stand a chance against me normally, but I just one-hit KO'd them like that." He punctuated it with a finger snap.

"I thought it was awesome!" Marx chirped. "Waddle Doo and the rest of those losers can be so annoying!"

"Honestly, I think Dedede should've known better. Sure, the Waddle Dees CAN be useful, but against someone who can A. inhale them all at once, and B. copy the abilities of things he inhales… they're kinda useless."

Outside the room, however, Escargoon was holding a cup to the door to listen in. "You gotta give them an "A" for effort, though." Fololo was heard.

"Yeah, loyalty's probably the only reason Dedede still keeps them around." Falala added.

"Yeah. I do feel kinda bad that I had to take them down, but hey, I DID warn them." Kirby said. "Honestly, King Dedede needs some better security."

"You certainly picked up an attitude, didn't you, Kirby?" Tiff asked.

"Who doesn't when talking about Dedede?" Kirby replied, laughing. Escargoon gave a growl unheard to those inside, his eyes briefly flashing to yellow.

*Throne Room*

"So… Kirby took you all down without battin' an eye?" King Dedede asked, eerily calm as he looked at his injured Waddle Dee army.

"W-We're sorry, Your Majesty! He caught us off guard!" Waddle Doo whimpered, obviously scared.

Dedede heard a beeping sound from his throne's console, so he pushed the button to summon the screen, which showed Magolor. "Ah, greetings, King Dedede!" Magolor said. He then noticed the injured Waddle Dees. "Ooh… did I call at a bad time?"

_**(Magolor Voice Actor: Tom Kenny as Spongebob Squarepants)**_

"Nah, not really. My whole Waddle Dee army just got flattened by Kirby without them even able to land a single hit!" Dedede yelled.

"P-Please, Your Majesty! We'll try harder next time! D-Don't fire us!" Waddle Doo begged.

Dedede stared at his soldiers for a minute, then sighed. "I ain't gonna fire ya. Trust me, if I cared whether or not you actually won, you'd have been outta my castle a long time ago." He waved them off. "Go on, go back to restin'. Don't worry about Kirby anymore."

"Th… Thank you, sire." Waddle Doo said before he led the Waddle Dees out of the room.

A moment of silence fell over them for a minute. "Well… that was solved surprisingly quick." Magolor said after a while.

Escargoon then turned to Dedede. "Sire, I overheard Kirby saying you needed better security. That might be something to think about."

Dedede's eyes widened. "Yeah… That's it! Heh heh heh heh!" He turned to Magolor. "All right, Mabogor, let's get down to business! I want a monster that can make a good security system!"

"Wow, you're actually taking Escargoon's advice for once? That is surprising." Magolor mused, making Escargoon smirk. "Hmm… Give me a minute, please." Magolor moved off-screen, and the sound of papers rustling could be heard, several of them flying into view of the monitor. "Oh, where did I put that stupid thing…? I'm so disorganized…" He rushed to the other off-screen side and rummaged some more, Dedede scratching his head at this. "Aha!" Magolor rushed back into view. "Sorry about that. I remembered one of our more recent creations. I think you'll be rather impressed with this." The monster transporter whirred to life, lightning crackling abound as the transporter began beaming the newest order to the castle. Finally, the light died down to reveal the being that had been sent. The being had a large spherical pink crystal for a torso, with hands, feet, and a head that seemed to be made of some sort of cloth, colored yellow with pink stars, all of them floating around the body instead of attached to it. The feet appeared similar to elf-toed shoes with a white pom-pom on each tip and a similar pink crystal in the opening of each shoe, the hands appeared to be two more of these crystals wearing gloves of the same material, with a white pom-pom on each fingertip, and the head appeared to be the same material in the form of a ski cap wrapping up a spherical form, with a white pom-pom on the end. However, the "hat" had a mouth and two sharp pink eyes. "Observe, our talented eviction specialist: Captaaaaaaaain Gemra!"

"I hear you have a problem with… an intruder?" Captain Gemra asked, his voice rather deep.

"You heard right! I want you to keep Kirby outta my castle!" Dedede ordered.

"Kirby… I know the name." Captain Gemra said.

"But you may not know the face, Captain Gemra." Magolor said, getting the crystal being's attention. "This is your target." Magolor brought up footage from the battle with Batafire, showing Kirby's new form.

Captain Gemra viewed the footage with scrutiny, keeping his vision locked on Kirby. "His face… his form… I shall remember." Captain Gemra looked at King Dedede and saluted. "Rest assured, Your Majesty. My guards will see to it that Kirby never sets foot in this castle again."

"Guards? I don't see any guards." Escargoon said, looking around.

"Just watch, Mr. Escargoon." Captain Gemra said, turning so his back was facing them. Placing his floating hands by his torso crystal, the crystal began to give off orange and pink sparkles, which started to orbit the crystal before it was completely covered by them. "Gemra Army… Emerge!" The sparkles scattered out and stopped in mid-air, then all of them morphed into forms that resembled Captain Gemra's head, but the hat did not cover the spherical form (which was yet another pink crystal), and none of them had mouths. The hat was all that was to them as well. "You were formed from my power, and my thoughts go to you. You see the form of your target, and you know your purpose." Captain Gemra then looked back at Dedede and Escargoon. "You wouldn't happen to know where he is, would you?"

"You can just follow me." Escargoon said, starting to walk off.

"Come, Gemras. Let us remove the problem as quickly as possible." Captain Gemra ordered, his minions following him as he himself followed Escargoon. Captain Gemra's eyes glowed pink with anticipation. However, watching from afar was a certain cyclopic captain of King Dedede's forces. Despite having no actual face, the way Waddle Doo moved his eye indicated he knew something was wrong…

*Ebrum Family Living Quarters*

Everyone around (well, except the two adults) leaned back into their chairs, stuffed from Lady Like's amazing dinner. "Awesome dinner like always, Mom!" Tuff chirped, burping at the end of his sentence.

"Amen to that!" Marx added.

However, the happy moment was stopped when the door was slammed open by Captain Gemra's floating hand, stepping inside. "What the?!" Tiff cried.

"I say, what is the meaning of this?!" Sir Ebrum asked, hopping out of his seat.

Captain Gemra turned to face them, all of them out of their seats. His eyes fell on Kirby. "Kirby… His Majesty King Dedede has ordered me to expunge you from this castle. You have one chance to leave peacefully."

"King Dedede actually ordered a monster to try and kick me out?" Kirby wondered. "Whenever he orders one of you, nothing ever goes well!"

"Then would you care to make this the one time a fight does not occur?" Captain Gemra asked, his Gemra minions floating into view.

"Hold on a minute!" Tiff cut in. "Kirby's got nowhere else to stay!"

"Yeah! What's he supposed to do, sleep under a rock?" Tuff added.

Captain Gemra didn't speak for a moment. "…Are you certain he has nowhere else?"

Tiff, Tuff, and Kirby were surprised: This monster actually sounded… concerned. "Well, the house that was SUPPOSED to be for me got hijacked by a bird…" Kirby said with an undertone of annoyance, walking toward the window and pointing out it. Captain Gemra walked over and looked out the window. "It's that white dome down there." The yellow-and-pink monster followed Kirby's finger and found the house.

"I see." Cpt. Gemra said. "…Gemras." The hat-like creatures gathered to him. "Go to that house and remove the bird within. Reclaim that house for Kirby." Kirby looked at him like he had grown a second head, while the Gemras simply floated out the window toward the dome-shaped house.

However, two other Gemras floated near Kirby, making him turn around. "Huh?" Their crystals glowed before they fired orange-and-pink sparkles at him, which started lifting him off the ground. "H-Hey! Put me down!" Cpt. Gemra pointed out the window, and the two Gemras carried Kirby off after the others.

"Kirby!" Marx cried.

"Come on, let's get down there!" Tiff said, leading the way as the kids headed out the door, completely ignoring the fact that they were trampling Escargoon in the hallway, leaving him with footprints and a few bounce marks from Marx's circus ball.

*Kirby's House*

The Gemras came to a stop outside Kirby's house, the two carrying Kirby canceling their beam and making him drop, landing on his rear. "Oof! Not exactly my idea of first-class airlines." He groaned. He looked back and noticed that Cpt. Gemra was floating toward him, landing right next to him before walking toward the house.

Inside, Tokkori was laughing his head off watching some slapstick show on Channel DDD when a rather rough knock shook the door, startling him. "All right, all right, I'm comin'! Don't get yer knuckles in a cast!" He griped, flying to the door and opening it. "What you need me fo-GACK!"

Tokkori was grabbed by Cpt. Gemra's floating hand. "This residence is not yours. You will leave and forfeit it to Kirby, its true owner."

"Whoa, hey, ease up! You're crushing him!" Kirby said, pushing Cpt. Gemra's torso crystal and throwing him off, making him release Tokkori.

The bird came to a rest atop the house. "I think you got your wires crossed, ya wool-headed crawdad! This here house is mine in a fair trade: Kirby lives in mah nest, I live here!"

"'Fair' trade? I was still a naïve puffball back then!" Kirby snapped. "And it's not like I can live there anymore since I look like, well, this!"

"Winners keepers, losers weepers, kiddo! I thought you were livin' in the castle now, anyway!" Tokkori said.

"Kirby is no longer allowed in His Majesty's castle." Cpt. Gemra said. "This house is his only option, so you must return to your nest."

"And just what makes you think I'm gonna listen to a pack of floating ski gear?" Tokkori asked.

Cpt. Gemra didn't answer for a brief moment. "Gemras!" The Gemras suddenly surrounded Tokkori.

The bird squawked in confusion before their crystals glowed, then one-by-one, the Gemras somersaulted while projecting energy whips made of orange and pink sparkles, lightly striking while also lightly zapping Tokkori in quick succession. "Bwaaaaaaaaak! Okay, okay, I got it! I'll vacate!"

"Gemras, cease!" Cpt. Gemra ordered, causing the Gemras to stop using their beam whips. At that moment, the others finally caught up to them.

Tokkori was lying flat on the roof, feathers singed a bit, panting. "What's the big idea bringin' this brute around, Kirby?" He asked.

"Hey, don't blame me. King Dedede ordered Ski-Head here." Kirby said, pointing at Cpt. Gemra with his thumb. The large Gemra didn't react. "Then again, considering all the jerkish stuff you've done to me as a puffball… you kinda deserved it."

Cpt. Gemra lifted Tokkori off the roof, making sure to not crush him this time, and placed him in his old nest. "Eviction complete."

"Honestly, I didn't expect you to be helpful. Thanks." Kirby said.

"I didn't do this to help you." Cpt. Gemra said without missing a beat. "If you still had nowhere to live, then you would continue to try and get back into the castle. Now that I have evicted Tokkori, you have less reason to even try to re-enter the castle. Therefore… Eviction complete. Gemras, return to the castle!" Cpt. Gemra floated back up toward Dedede's castle, both led and followed by his Gemra minions.

Kirby merely stared as Cpt. Gemra headed back to the castle. "Hmph. Fine. You can have that place back. I was gettin' bored with it, anyway." Tokkori said, preening his wing.

"Yeah, right." Marx mused, rolling his eyes.

"So, King Dedede decided to play hardball with me, huh?" Kirby mused. "All right. Two can play at that game. Let's just see how long it takes for Dedede to come crawling back to me."

"Kirby… your new confidence is starting to scare me." Tiff admitted. "How are you not worried?"

"…Honestly, Tiff, I kinda am worried." Kirby admitted. "The power those Gemras had isn't anything I remember seeing before. If I can't get any abilities by inhaling them, I'll be at a disadvantage if I ever fight them, which I know I will. Those monsters never stay peaceful for long."

*Back At The Castle*

"HEH HEH HEH HEH! I gotta hand it to ya, Cap'n, that was a-mazin'!" King Dedede said with joy, Captain Gemra and his Gemras with him. "You got Kirby outta my castle without even breakin' a sweat!"

"Sometimes the best solution is the most practical one." Cpt. Gemra replied. "Now that Kirby has his house back, he has next to no reason to return here." One of the Gemras then floated in front of him, getting his attention. "Yes?" The Gemra made a few unintelligible noises, flailing its body around. The other Gemras started getting a little antsy as well.

"What's up with them? Too much caffeine?" Escargoon asked.

"No. My Gemras are wondering exactly what to do now." The Captain asked. "As Kirby was successfully evicted from the castle, we have no current mission."

"Well, I got just the thing for ya! As of right now, you guys are my new castle security!" King Dedede chirped.

Cpt. Gemra raised an eyebrow. "But what about your Waddle Dees?"

"They ain't that effective of a security system, but I can't just toss 'em out in the streets!" Dedede replied. "I'll always keep 'em around as workers 'n such, but as far as protectin' my castle goes, you guys are just the monsters for the job! Heh heh heh heh!"

The Gemras seemed to be squeaking with excitement. Captain Gemra, however, merely bowed. "It is my honor to serve you, Your Majesty. However, I feel that at least one of your guards has some… potential." He glanced off to the side. "Waddle Doo, I know you're there. Please come out." The cyclopic Waddle Dee came out from hiding. "Come over here, please." Waddle Doo approached. "With your permission, King Dedede, I want to take Waddle Doo on as an apprentice. Teach him how to fight like us. Perhaps if he can use my powers, he could become an effective guard."

"Are you really a monster?" Waddle Doo asked.

"…It all depends on how you define 'monster'." The Captain replied.

Dedede mulled it over. "Hmm… Fine by me! You might be able to whip Waddle Doo into fighting shape!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Cpt. Gemra said. "Gemras! All of you, find the Waddle Dees and aid them in patrolling the castle. Keep your eyes and crystals ready in case any intruders come in your sights. If you find them, evict them from this castle and prevent their re-entry. Understood?" The Gemras gave a reaction that was the best they could do as a nod. "Gemras, dismissed!" The Gemras headed out of the throne room, dispersing throughout the castle. "Waddle Doo, our training will begin tomorrow. Make sure you are ready." With that, Cpt. Gemra walked out of the throne room, Waddle Doo watching him with a clearly nervous look in his eye.

The days started passing without incident. Deciding to keep things peaceful, Kirby did not attempt to re-enter King Dedede's castle, proving Captain Gemra right by claiming he didn't really have a reason to since Tiff and the others still showed up at his house every day to hang out. During those same days, Captain Gemra trained Waddle Doo to harness the Gemras' energy and use their powers. The Gemras seemed to get along well with the Waddle Dees, freeing up the latter to take care of other duties as the former kept watch for any problems.

"Okay, Waddle Doo. Just as practiced." Captain Gemra said. He and Waddle Doo were in a large area in a basement floor of the castle, with numerous training dummies set up like a makeshift gym. "Focus your energy to a proper form…" He placed his hands together and gripped his left hand with his right, orange-and-pink sparkles gathering around the crystal on the left cuff. "…then strike." He pointed the left cuff crystal at the training dummies, and the crystal unleashed a storm of orange and pink energy particles, striking a bunch of the dummies and reducing them to pieces. "Your turn." The Captain said as his left hand returned to his spot.

Waddle Doo started focusing his energy toward his eye, concentrating hard. Sweat appeared around his eye as he groaned, his eye starting to glow. "Raaah!" Pointing his eye forward, Waddle Doo released his energy… which only came out as a couple of yellow sparkles that didn't go much farther than two inches.

"You are distracted. Clear your mind." Captain Gemra said.

"Look, why are you doing this, anyway?" Waddle Doo asked, a bit peeved. "King Dedede ordered you to take my job!"

"False assumption. If I was taking your job, you wouldn't be here." Captain Gemra said without missing a beat, confusing the cyclops. "I am training you to be as strong a leader to your Waddle Dees as I am to my Gemras. And to do that, you need more power. Now, try again, Waddle Doo. Imagine that they are enemies out to cause harm to your army or your king."

Waddle Doo faced the dummies again, taking Cpt. Gemra's advice and envisioning them as monsters, those that looked more evil than Cpt. Gemra. Anger flared within him, causing his eye to flash on and off. "Haaah!" This time, Waddle Doo successfully fired off a stream of yellow energy sparkles from his eye, striking the dummies and destroying them.

There was a brief moment of silence, then Waddle Doo turned to see Cpt. Gemra clapping his hands, a small smile on his face. "Well done, Waddle Doo. However, that was only the basic training. Now, we move into our more advanced techniques." At that moment, however, a few Gemras floated in, conversing in their squeaky language.

"What are they saying?" Waddle Doo asked.

"It seems my Gemras are getting rather… antsy." Cpt. Gemra replied. "It's been a few days since Kirby was evicted from the castle, and nothing has happened, so they have not been able to evict anyone." He turned to his Gemras. "Be calm, my Gemras. Guarding this castle does not mean you are to expect action. You must be ready, yes, but you must not be overly ready." The Gemras looked a little bummed as they flew off.

"…I told my soldiers the exact same thing a long time ago." Waddle Doo realized.

"The path to becoming a good captain is dedication and compassion." Captain Gemra said. "Focus on your duty and do not let it get to you, but your troops are also a priority: Defend them should they be in danger."

"Words to live by, those are." Waddle Doo said. "Y'know, I first thought you were just some replacement for me."

"If King Dedede can't get rid of the Waddle Dees, I can't get rid of you. A trained army bonds with their commander. If you vanished, the Waddle Dees would be helpless." He placed a hand on top of Waddle Doo's head-body. "I may not be able to train them, but I can train you, and you can train them. No matter how far the chain goes, the training can be passed down until those who need it receive it." Waddle Doo gave his version of a nod. "Now then, let us move onto our next training exercise."

*That Night*

Magolor monitored the Gemras within King Dedede's castle, somehow seeing through their eyes on a computer screen. "Excellent… The Gemras are working just as planned."

"The Gemras?!" Magolor's master bellowed behind him out of nowhere, scaring the heck out of him. "You fool! Those monsters weren't fully tested yet!"

"C-C-Calm yourself, Master!" Magolor cried, throwing his hands up. "I assure you, they'll be kept under control! I made sure Captain Gemra was up to snuff!"

"Even HE won't be able to control them for very long…" Magolor's master breathed. "Warn him. Now!"

"Yes, Master!" Magolor cried, spinning around and typing rapidly on his keyboard, bringing up a visual of Captain Gemra. "Captain Gemra, keep an eye on your servants. It seems we've discovered… a problem with them."

_"A problem?"_ Captain Gemra asked. _"Preposterous. I create the Gemras from within my crystal. I know their conditions. There is nothing wrong with them."_

"This is no time to be sympathetic, Captain Gemra." Magolor's master boomed. "Keep better track of your servants. That is an order!"

_"I alone will command my Gemras. Order denied."_ Captain Gemra replied. _"Let me do my job."_ The visual cut out.

"Why, that little…!" Magolor growled.

His master also growled. "He'll learn the error of his sympathetic ways soon enough…"

*Meanwhile*

The castle was quiet as everyone slept peacefully, Captain Gemra and some of the Gemras using a makeshift second servant's quarters to sleep. A few of the Waddle Dees were still roaming the halls as the night shift, but this night, they convened in the kitchen for a little late-night snack. Outside, the three Gemras that were aiding them in patrolling were shaking, quite obviously the same antsiness that their Captain described. Then, one Gemra lightly rammed into the others to get their attention, conversing with them in their own language. The three of them quickly found themselves on the same page, their eyes giving evil looks. As the Waddle Dees tried stacking themselves on top of each other to reach the cabinet, the Gemras slowly approached them from behind, their pink eyes glowing eerily. The Waddle Dee on top felt a glare boring into its back, feeling very nervous as it slowly looked back, locking onto the glowing Gemra eyes. The Waddle Dee's eyes widened in fear, and the next thing that was known, the sound of crashing and Gemra beam-whips were heard, making the screen shake, and the Waddle Dees were then chucked out the open window, landing in a bush. The Gemras then stalked back down the hallway, their eyes still glowing.

*The Next Day*

"What are you goin' on about? Those Gemras know better than to attack you!" King Dedede complained to Waddle Doo, who had the three Waddle Dees that were thrown out behind him, all of them looking mad. "Captain Gemra, get out here!"

The Captain entered the room, followed by a couple of his Gemras. "Is something the matter?"

"My Waddle Dees are sayin' your Gemras attacked 'em and threw 'em outta my castle!" Dedede shouted.

Cpt. Gemra didn't get a chance to react before his Gemras started shaking madly and squeaking. "My Gemras aren't very happy with these accusations. They claim that they merely threw out a group of intruders."

The Waddle Dees hopped angrily. "My guards are saying that the Gemras are lying!" Waddle Doo said.

Cpt. Gemra sighed. "I may only have my Gemras' word to go by, but between them and your Waddle Dees, I am inclined to believe my Gemras. I'm not seeing any proof, anyway." The Waddle Dees were hopping again, glaring daggers at the Gemras. Then, one of them chucked its spear at a Gemra, just barely missing. The Gemra glared, causing its crystal to glow dangerously, but the Captain grabbed it and pushed it back. "Don't! We don't need a war here."

"He's right. Don't start fighting." Waddle Doo told his Waddle Dees. The Gemra that was pushed back backed out of his Captain's hand, looking at the other Gemras and conversing with them before they all flew off. Their eyes were glowing as they stalked down the hallway.

*That Night*

As Waddle Doo slept in his own room, his door was barricaded… by the Gemras. Giving evil looks, they turned their attention to the Waddle Dees, their eyes glowing pink.

*The Next Day*

King Dedede sat on his throne, getting rather impatient as he waited for something. Tapping the arm of his throne rapidly, he growled. "Hey, what's taking so long?!" He yelled. No response. "Those Waddle Dees better not still be sleepin'!" He got up and left the throne room, heading toward the servant's quarters, passing by some Gemras, but he noticeably didn't pass a single Waddle Dee. _'If those Waddle Dees even got paid, they'd have it docked for this.'_ He thought. However, the minute he entered the servant's quarters, he ate his words. "HOLY MOLY!" The servant's quarters looked like they had been attacked, with several of the beds wrecked and the room nearly deserted. Another door slowly opened, showing two Waddle Dees cowering.

"Hello?! Someone let me outta here!" Waddle Doo was heard, banging on his barricaded door. The Waddle Dees rushed out of their closet, removing the barricade and allowing their cyclopic leader to exit. He took one look at the room and gasped as well. "W-What happened here?!" Then, a massive amount of Waddle Dees, at least half the army, shuffled into the room. There were zap marks and dirt all over a bunch of them, all of them looking angry. "Where were you? What happened to you?" The Waddle Dees hopped up and down with glares in their eyes. "What? The Gemras did this?" They started miming actions. "The Gemras blocked off my door… staged a false alarm… got most of you together… then attacked and threw almost everyone out?!" One Waddle Dee held out half a broken spear, showing the pom-pom of a Gemra stuck to the end of it.

"I call that our proof!" King Dedede said. "Those crystal-butts are so fired!" He rushed out of the servant's quarters and bolted back to his throne room, hopping on and pressing a button to turn his throne into an elevator. As he descended, he looked mad. "The minute I get ahold of that floatin' mass of parts, I'm gonna fire him so hard he'll be blastin' off to Rock Star!" His throne landed on the floor with the Gemras' quarters, but as he approached the room, he was blocked off by a group of Gemras. "Outta my way! I need a word with your boss!" The Gemras merely squeaked as if backtalking him. "Don't back-sass me! I know what you did to my Waddle Dees!" The Gemras recoiled, their eyes clearly indicating they were busted. "I might be glad you got Kirby outta my castle, but no one attacks my Waddle Dees but me! Tell your boss and the rest of ya to get outta my castle, now! You're fired, ya get me? Fired!" The Gemras merely floated for a moment, not making any noises, before they looked at each other, squeak-talking to each other. When they found themselves on the same page… they immediately snapped toward Dedede, their eyes glowing. Dedede immediately felt himself in a bad position…

_**AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!**_

By the time Escargoon and Waddle Doo managed to catch up with him, King Dedede landed on the floor, practically fried. The Gemras turned their attention to them, their crystals sparkling violently. "RUN!" Escargoon cried, both of them rushing through the castle while being chased by the beam-firing Gemras. "Get help!"

"Who's gonna help us?!" Waddle Doo cried.

"Who do you think?!" Escargoon cried back. Waddle Doo could only think of one person Escargoon meant.

*A Bit Later*

Kirby was munching on corn on the cob alongside his friends, enjoying the sunny day. He looked over at Marx, who levitated the corn in front of him as he ate. "How do you do that?" He asked.

Marx gulped down his bite. "Y'know… I don't know. How do Fololo and Falala float in the air?" The two floating creatures looked at each other briefly, but Marx's tone indicated it was a joke, getting a laugh out of everyone.

Then, the sound of panting caught their eyes, and they turned to see Waddle Doo rushing toward them, the poor guard tripping onto his "face" and panting heavily. "Waddle Doo? You look awful! What happened?" Tiff asked.

"The… The Gemras… They've gone… insane…" Waddle Doo panted. "Kirby… You gotta… help us!"

"Dedede kicked Kirby out of the castle! Why should he help you?" Tuff asked.

"There's too many… of them… My Waddle Dees keep getting beaten by them. I can't help them, even with my training… I need help myself."

Kirby looked at Waddle Doo with sympathy. While he knew he had to stop the Gemras eventually, he didn't expect it to be initiated like this. "…All right, I'll help. But King Dedede's gonna owe me for this!" Inhaling every kernel off of his corn, he dropped the cobs and stood up. "Let's do this!" He picked up Waddle Doo, hefted him on his shoulders, and rushed off toward the castle.

"Come on!" Tiff cried, following Kirby with the others in tow.

As they entered the main hallway, multiple Gemras appeared. They took one look at Kirby and glared, their eyes glowing. "Waddle Doo, get to the side. I can handle them!" Kirby said. Waddle Doo hopped off his shoulders and headed off to the side. "You think you can handle me, you crudshoot crystal-butts?" This ticked them off, so the Gemras pointed their crystals at Kirby and fired beam sparkles at him, which Kirby dodged. "My turn!" Taking a deep breath, Kirby puffed his cheeks and rapidly moved his feet before leaping forward and unleashing Inhale. The Gemras recoiled in fear as the wind started pulling them in, but two of them fired beam sparkles to try and stop him. However, the sparkles merely turned into streams of energy and were inhaled by Kirby, who swallowed them. Feeling power, Kirby leapt into the air.

*Transformation Scene*

Kirby backflipped rapidly in the starry sky before righting himself, then he placed his hands in front of him. Pink, orange, and blue sparkles gathered into his hands and formed a large orb of energy, which transformed into a golden wand with small blue spherical crystals in its circular rim and a large blue spherical crystal on its top. Kirby grabbed the wand and began waving it around, sending pink, orange, and blue sparkles everywhere before they converged on top of Kirby's head. The sparkles flashed, which not only formed his new hat (a two-point jester hat with a white rim and white pom-poms on each end, half orange with white stars and half solid red), but changed his skin to a light orange color (it didn't change his hair) and changed his outfit to brown with orange sparkles on it, his feet turning orange. Kirby then pointed the wand forward, pink, orange, and blue sparkles orbiting the crystal on the end.

*End Scene*

"Is that a new mode?" Tiff asked.

"Sure looks like it!" Tuff said. "But what is he?" A short moment of silence ensued, and Tuff looked around. "Isn't this usually where Meta Knight shows up?"

"Who needs him? I can say what I am now!" Kirby said. "Thanks to the Gemras' energy, I've become…" He swiped once with his wand, briefly swinging a whip of pink, orange, and blue sparkles. "**Beam Kirby**!"

"Awesome!" Marx cried.

Kirby turned to the Gemras, who seemed shocked that Kirby now had their power. "Ready for a taste of your own medicine?" The Gemras rushed forward, as did Kirby, who jumped. "Beam Whip!" Kirby started swinging his wand around, flailing around his sparkle whip and lashing all of the Gemras with surprising accuracy.

In his resting quarters, Captain Gemra felt a pulse go through him. _'My Gemras… They are in danger!'_

While in the air, Kirby stepped on one of the Gemras' "heads" and used it to jump even higher. "HAAH!" He pointed his wand forward and fired a small storm of sparkles, which pelted the Gemras like hail, sending them to the ground. "Waddle Doo, go see if the Waddle Dees are all right."

"G-Got it!" Waddle Doo said, rushing off.

"Come on, is that all you've got?" Kirby said, pointing his wand at the Gemras.

"WAVE BEAM!" All of a sudden, a powerful sphere of energy shot down from another doorway toward Kirby.

"WHOA!" Kirby hit the deck to avoid the attack, the others also jumping out of the way. The attack flew clean out of the castle and obliterated a tree.

Kirby stood up as Captain Gemra slowly stepped into the room, a stern look on his face as he turned to face Kirby. "I evicted you from this castle, and you wisely stayed away. Why do you dare to return, AND attack my Gemras?"

"Because your Gemras are being complete bullies to the Waddle Dees!" Kirby shot back. "I was told everything! The Gemras have been attacking them and throwing them out of the castle!"

The injured Gemras floated off the ground and started squeaking at their leader, transmitting words. "My Gemras claim you are lying. Then again, what reason do you have to lie?" Captain Gemra closed his eyes and sighed. "…I am conflicted. I thought you would be a problem, but the only reason you dare return appears to be out of sympathy for another. I should be inclined to believe my Gemras, but knowing who you are… I do not know who to believe." Kirby raised an eyebrow, lowering his wand. "HOWEVER!" The Captain grabbed his left hand with his right, making Kirby recoil. "Your motives may be both sympathetic and in the right..." His eyes snapped open. "…but I will protect my Gemras until my crystal heart is in pieces!" He pointed his left hand crystal at Kirby and fired a storm of beam sparkles at him. Kirby flailed the Beam Whip around to deflect the sparkles. "Impressive. You're as skilled at learning powers as I've been told."

"You might as well give up right now, Captain Gemra. I've taken down monsters that are way bigger and tougher than you, and your Gemras can't back you up." Kirby warned.

"That is true. You defeated Batafire with little effort. But I cannot back down!" Captain Gemra cried, rushing forward, forming his own Beam Whip with his hand crystal. Kirby countered with his own, causing the two Beam Whips to clash repeatedly like a makeshift swordfight.

"Are you able to even accept that your Gemras could do things wrong?" Kirby asked.

"They shouldn't be… Ngh!" Cpt. Gemra leapt back and lashed again, nearly missing Kirby. "They were designed to be perfect guards!"

"They ain't perfect!" King Dedede was heard saying. Cpt. Gemra turned to see him walking in alongside Waddle Doo. "Those stupid Christmas decorations turned on me and whipped my butt, literally!"

"And my Waddle Dees have evidence that they attacked them!" Waddle Doo added, holding up the spearhead with the Gemra's pom-pom.

"They… they what?" Cpt. Gemra gasped. Looking at his Gemras, he noticed one of them was missing the pom-pom on its hat. "It… It is true…"

However, rather than be afraid, the Gemras turned their eyes to Waddle Doo, fierce glares and glowing eyes abound. "Aw, man… They're mad now!" Tuff cried.

The Gemras suddenly turned into pink energy and began converging into one spot, becoming a shaking orb of pink energy that exploded into a massive Gemra. "The Union Formation?! What are you doing?!" Cpt. Gemra cried. Giant Gemra turned right to him and answered by shooting a Wave Beam at him. "GAAAAH!" He yelled as he was knocked back, landing on the ground and sliding into the wall.

"Captain Gemra!" Waddle Doo cried.

"I knew those things were a crudshoot!" Kirby said. "That thing's goin' down!" He leapt at it and started lashing it with Beam Whip, making it give a low squeak before turning to Kirby. "Oh boy!" However, Giant Gemra was also struck from the back by a flurry of yellow energy sparkles that were shooting out of Waddle Doo's eye. "Waddle Doo?"

Waddle Doo ceasefired. "I've learned some new tricks. Let's double up against this traitor!"

Kirby landed and nodded. "Sounds good to me!" He and Waddle Doo fired another flurry of energy sparkles at Giant Gemra, pelting it from both sides, which was dealing damage but also making it angrier. Squeaking lowly and loudly, it began gathering a lot of energy into its crystal.

"That's the Wave Beam! Sire, get out of here!" Waddle Doo cried.

"You ain't gotta tell me twice!" Dedede cried, rushing out of the room.

Its eyes glowing, Giant Gemra fired a powerful sphere of energy toward Waddle Doo, but all of a sudden, Captain Gemra rushed in front of him and blocked the sphere with his bare hands, struggling against it. "I'm all right! Kirby, Waddle Doo, attack it! Now!" He groaned.

Kirby and Waddle Doo hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Kirby rose his wand while Waddle Doo crossed his arms over his eye. Pink, orange, and blue sparkles gathered into Kirby's wand while yellow sparkles gathered into Waddle Doo's eye, which caused both to flash. Then, both of them pointed their energy directly at Giant Gemra's crystal. "WAVE BEAM!" Both of them fired their own version of that attack, two spheres of powerful energy. Giant Gemra had fearful eyes as the spheres slammed into its crystal, causing it to crack violently. With a low and pained squeak, Giant Gemra's eyes rolled back into its head before its crystal finally shattered in an explosion, taking the rest of its body and the Wave Beam Cpt. Gemra struggled against with it.

"All right! They won!" Tuff cheered.

"Way to go, you guys!" Tiff cried.

Waddle Doo fell onto his rear, panting. Kirby glowed white before reverting to his base form, and like the last time, he felt something come up his throat, and he coughed up a star-shaped figure. This one was light orange with an orange rim and the image of orange sparkles, and like the last one, it quickly vanished. He walked over to Captain Gemra and Waddle Doo with a smile. "Thanks for the help, Waddle Doo. Where did you learn to do that?"

"I trained him." Captain Gemra said. "Kirby, Waddle Doo… I cannot apologize enough for this. I thought my Gemras were well-trained… but they even turned on me. I had no idea they were like this." He looked at Waddle Doo. "But you, Waddle Doo… I'm glad I chose to train you. There is nothing else you need to learn from me."

"Thanks, Captain Gemra. I'll use what you taught me to become a greater leader to my soldiers." Waddle Doo.

"Oh, I don't think that's too much of a worry!" Kirby chirped, pointing. Next thing Waddle Doo realized, he was picked up and hefted on top of a crowd of happy Waddle Dees, who were jumping at waving their arms as if cheering. Everyone else was looking on with smiles, including Captain Gemra.

The Captain then saw King Dedede looking on from the doorway, and he sent his hand over to him, grabbing him and pulling him into the room. "H-Hey!" Dedede cried before being plopped in front of Kirby, who was smirking.

Kirby merely patted Dedede on the shoulder. "Just let me back into the castle, and no hard feelings, okay?" He said. Dedede merely looked away with a huff. Kirby then noticed Captain Gemra walking off. "Hey, where are you going?"

"King Dedede would likely fire me for this, so I figured I'd quit before he got the chance." Cpt. Gemra said. "My Gemras are too unruly for this."

"Hang on." Waddle Doo said, hopping off his Waddle Dees, who followed him as he walked over. "It's not too late to fix that. To be a real father to your men, you have to care about them, but also be firm. If they're going too far, reel them back in. You just gotta give 'em so real discipline, y'know?"

Captain Gemra was silent for a moment. "…You are right. I thought my Gemras were disciplined right from creation, but I guess I was wrong. I must work with them, ensure that they know where they can and can't go in their duties, as well as curbing their attitudes." He smiled at Waddle Doo. "This teacher learned something from his pupil today."

"So where will you go now?" Tiff asked.

"I do not know. I'll probably find out while I travel." Captain Gemra said. "Perhaps we will meet again someday… when my Gemras are not so defiant." With that, Captain Gemra strolled out of the castle, down the path toward Cappy Town.

"He was a good person for someone who was supposed to be a monster." Kirby said as he and the others watched him leave. "It makes me feel good knowing I didn't have to destroy him."

"He said that him being a monster depended on what you call a monster." Waddle Doo said.

"He definitely didn't seem like a monster to me." Falala said.

"Me neither." Fololo added. King Dedede had already snuck off.

"Hey, Kirby. Since it's pretty clear you're allowed in the castle again, wanna join us for lunch?" Tiff asked.

"Do ya have to ask?" Kirby replied, laughing. The laughter was contagious, and soon even Waddle Doo was laughing. The star-shaped iris-out focused on Kirby's head before closing.

* * *

**Vile: For once, the fight ends without the main monster being destroyed, and we have the debut of Beam Kirby!**

**Kirby: Where was that mode in the original show? Isn't it supposed to be Sakurai's favorite mode of mine?**

**Vile: Good question, Kirby. I had to put it in somewhere early, and Chapter 2 just seemed to work.**

**Tuff: That battle was awesome! Kinda short, but Kirby's fights are always short since he wins so fast!**

**Vile: That's how Kirby works: Copy an ability, then kick tail with zero effort! XD If you guys liked this chapter, leave a review for me! I've got up to Chapter 7 already thought out, so hopefully next chapter won't take so long. Ja ne for now!**

**Computer Voice: Vile, logging out.**


	3. New Dog, New Tricks

**Vile: Updates are a fickle thing, aren't they? Then again, when you're writing 16 chapters of another fic without posting them until they're done, it does create gaps between updates.**

**Tuff: And I just you were just being lazy.**

**Vile: *sweatdrops* Gee, thanks, Tuff.**

**Kirby: Well, at least you have a reason for these time gaps.**

**Vile: Yep. But since I've got this chapter done, I'll post it so we can see Kirby in action again. Enjoy, folks!**

* * *

Kirby: Right Back At Ya! Next Season

Episode 3: New Dog, New Tricks

The star-in showed a dark and mysterious place that did not appear to be anywhere near Cappy Town. A logo of a gear with very weird wings on it indicated this was the HQ of Lorxram Express, and the room was that of the transporter that led to Dedede's castle. A tall shadowed figure entered the room and placed a basket of some sort with a blanket layered overtop of it on the transporter, showing that their hands were similar to feathered wings. Sighing, the culprit walked over to the control panel and began typing. "This life isn't for you… Perhaps they'll take better care of you." Pulling a switch, the transporter whirred to life and covered the basket with lightning, warping it out of the building. _'Please… someone good find him…'_

*Cappy Town*

The transporter in Dedede's castle whirred to life in the dead of night, using its electrical charges to beam the basket into the castle. Within the basket, something rustled before peeking out of the blanket: A small brown nose. The rest of the head peeked out, showing a light tan muzzle attached to a cute tan face and black eyes: A puppy, albeit with no ears. The puppy sniffed around for a moment, not liking its surroundings. A whine came from it. "Box! Box!" It barked before finally crawling out of the basket, showing that it was only a head with tan feet, and its armless hands had red boxing gloves on them. It had no tail, and a blue collar with a tag was around its neck. Sniffing, the puppy rushed out of the throne room. It got a whiff of the night air and followed it on all fours. However, as it neared the exit, a Waddle Dee on patrol crossed its path and noticed it. The puppy screeched to a stop and gazed at the Waddle Dee, but the minute it caught sight of the spear it was holding… "BOX BOX!" It lunged at the Waddle Dee.

_**POW!**_

The Waddle Dee landed on the ground with a large impact welt on its "head", the puppy dashing out of the castle in the background. The puppy rushed into the streets of Cappy Town, looking and sniffing to find its way to something, anything. Its stomach rumbled: It was clearly hungry. Eventually, it caught sight of a house with a car parked out front. Rushing toward the house while barking, it made it to the door, scraping the bottom of it with its gloved paws. It stood there for a while, whining. Finally, the door opened, showing a familiar Cappy. "Yes?" The mayor's wife asked before noticing no one was there.

"Box box!" The puppy barked.

Hana looked down, seeing the tiny dog. "Oh my heavens! What are you doing out here all by yourself, little one?" She bent down and picked up the puppy, who whined. "You must be starving. Come in, come in, I'll find you something good to eat." The woman brought the puppy inside, closing the door behind her.

*The Next Day*

The kids were playing at the park that King Dedede had built, and believe it or not, he actually spruced the place up since it was created, improving the quality of everything. "Higher, Tiff!" Kirby said as Tiff pushed him on the swing.

"You sure you're not going too high, Kirby?" Tiff asked.

"No way! Come on, keep pushing!" Kirby replied. Tiff was unsure, but she kept pushing, having to jump in order to keep Kirby going higher. "A little more!"

"Oh, this is gonna be good." Marx mused on top of the jungle gym as Tuff went down the slide.

As Kirby reached a high point, he immediately jumped off the swing. "WOOHOO!"

"Is he nuts?!" Fololo cried.

Marx then kicked his circus ball into the path of Kirby's descent, and Kirby landed on the ball with his foot, taking another leap off it and doing a full handstand landing before flipping onto his feet. "Ta-da!"

"Awesome!" Tuff said, himself, Fololo, and Falala clapping.

"That was insane… but also amazing! How'd you do that?" Tiff asked.

Kirby snapped his fingers. "All my battles made be limber and durable. That jump was nothing!"

"Boxin! Here, boy!" A familiar voice cried. The kids turned to see Hana wandering into the park. "Oh, kids! Good to see you! Have you seen a little puppy anywhere?"

"A puppy?" Tiff asked. Kirby was scratching his head.

"Yes. I found the poor thing last night. He ran off this way." Hana told them. "Boxin! Where are you?"

Then, a rustling in the nearby grass caught Marx's attention. "Huh?" Moving over to the grass, he was startled by the puppy leaping out and tackling him. "OOF!" Marx landed on the ground, Boxin on top of him.

"Box box!" The puppy barked before licking his face.

"Hahahaha! Stop it, stop it, hahaha!" Marx laughed.

"I think we found him." Kirby said with a smile. Boxin saw them and leaped off of Marx, rushing over and leaping into Hana's arms.

"You're a slippery little thing, aren't you?" Hana playfully asked, petting the puppy.

"Box box!"

"Aw… he's so cute!" Falala said, petting Boxin. Boxin licked her hand in response.

Kirby looked closer at Boxin as Marx walked back over to them. The tag on the collar said "Boxin", but it flipped over, revealing an odd logo. "Huh?" Holding the tag, he saw that the logo looked like a golden gear with very weird wings jutting out from it. "Where'd this little guy come from?" He was suddenly conked on the head. "Oof!" Rubbing his head, Kirby saw that Boxin had one of his gloves raised, and he didn't look happy.

Tiff noticed the gloves. "What's a puppy doing with boxing gloves?"

"A little bruiser in training, I bet." Kirby groaned.

Then, all of a sudden, King Dedede's limo pulled up beside them. The king threw the basket that Boxin was transported in at them, Tuff catching it. "I heard about the little mutt and thought you might want that thing. I sure don't." Dedede said. Escargoon then drove off.

"Okay, that was random." Marx lampshaded.

Tuff felt around inside the basket, feeling a few cushions, but he also found and pulled out something else: A folded piece of paper. "Hey, check this out."

Tiff took the paper and unfolded it. "It's a letter! 'Whoever finds this basket, I leave Boxin in your care. He may be young, but fighting is in his blood. Please, treat Boxin with care and keep him out of battle, or else he may go down a path of carnage. I trust the judgment of whoever finds him.'"

"Does it say who it's from?" Kirby asked.

"No, there's no signature." Tiff said.

"You poor little thing. Who knows what sort of place you came from?" Hana wondered, stroking Boxin's head. "Well, don't you worry. I'll see to it that you get all the care you need."

"Box, box!" Boxin barked happily.

*King Dedede's Castle*

"Well, I'm glad that little road trip went off easy." Escargoon mused as he and King Dedede walked back into the throne room.

"I don't know how that little puppy nugget got in my castle, but at least he ain't my problem." King Dedede said as he hopped into his chair.

Then, as if on cue, the video screen emerged from the wall and showed Magolor. "It's about time you got back. Where were you two?"

Dedede was startled, but quickly shook it off. "What about it? I can't leave my castle unless some egg man gives me the OK?"

"Forget the castle, Your Majesty. It seems we have… a bit of an issue." Magolor said.

"Oh, HERE we go." Escargoon said with an eye roll.

Magolor held up a clipboard. "According to our transporter log, a monster was sent to your castle approximately eight hours ago. Did you order anything last night?"

"Not unless I somehow ordered in my sleep!" Dedede replied.

"Hmm… that jives with the order record. Well then, it seems that one of our monsters has turned into a runaway and used our transporter to escape to Cappy Town." Magolor said. "Has anything strange happened lately?"

"Does the mayor's wife finding a puppy count?" Escargoon asked. "Somehow the little thing got in he-" All three of them suddenly widened their eyes.

"A puppy… About yea big, no ears, boxing gloves on its hands?" Magolor asked, simulating a size with his hands for the "yea big" part.

"Smaller! It was a teeny little thing!" Dedede said.

Magolor recoiled a bit, then snapped his glove like two fingers. "Curses… That Boxin wasn't trained yet! It's still an infant compared to the others!"

"So a little puppy somehow activated your transporter. You ever thought about firing your security team?" Escargoon asked.

"Okay, let's get this straight: If that Boxin stays out of battle for too long, he'll lose his fighting instinct." Magolor said. "Therefore, you two need to either get Boxin back to us, or harness his fighting instinct."

"Do I look like I'm some pet caretaker? Why do I have to do this?" Dedede asked.

"You don't have to supervise it, Your Majesty. Just make sure Boxin gets ahold of our special training toys." Magolor told them. "I'll send them to you. They're not monsters, so they won't count against your 100-Man Trial Program."

"You're really serious about this, aren't you? It's just a puppy." Escargoon mused.

"Oh, I'm not the one worried about it." Magolor said, looking back and forth. "But between us, if the monster in charge of Boxin finds out that he doesn't grow right… things won't be pretty."

Dedede rubbed his chin for a moment, then a smirk formed on his face. "Just so we're clear on this, what's in it for me if I were to do this for ya?"

Magolor sweatdropped. _'Oh, I should've known this would happen...'_ He thought. He went into a thoughtful pose for a moment. "Hmm… Okay, how about this? Since we haven't yet received payment for the repairs I did, I'll tack on another stipulation to your Trial Program. If you aren't satisfied with our services before you've ordered 75 monsters, at which, you've only ordered two, I'll negate the entire cost of the Program. You won't even have to pay me for the repairs for quite some time, but once you hit monster number 76, I'll come a-knockin' for the cash. Sound fair?"

Escargoon pulled Dedede's ear by his mouth. "I wouldn't, sire. Given our history, I don't think we'll be able to cancel before the check comes." He whispered.

"You're worried about nothin', Escargoon. The way this eggboy's talking, we'll be gettin' deals left and right." Dedede whispered back with a grin. He then turned his grin to Magolor. "All right, Mabogor, you got a deal!"

"Excellent!" Magolor said with a clap of his hands, the viewpoint having changed to his side of the screen. "I'll send the toys to you tout suite!" He turned off the visual.

"Impressive bounce-back, Magolor." His master said. "I've already informed Box Boxer of the situation. He was surprisingly understanding."

"…And that's what worries me. He's NEVER understanding." Magolor whimpered.

"You have a point. Get those training toys to Dedede, pronto." His master said.

"Yes, Master!" Magolor said with a salute, rushing off.

*A Little Later*

"Eat up, little one." Hana said, placing a small bowl with some food (not too much) on the floor. Boxin sniffed the food for a moment before digging in happily, chomping up the food.

"Well, he's certainly hungry." Len said as Boxin scarfed his food. "It's a good thing Curio let him use those old bowls he found as food and water bowls for him."

"And that the store had a supply of pet food." Hana said, immediately finding it weird. "Come to think of it, when did the store start selling pet food?"

"Hmm… Good question. To my knowledge, we're the only people in Cappy Town that actually have a pet." Len replied.

"Box box!" Boxin barked, the two Cappies noting that he had already finished his food.

"Heh heh! A little speed-eater, aren't you?" Len asked, Boxin panting happily.

Then, there was a knock at the door. "Special delivery!" A voice said from outside.

"I don't remember ordering anything." Hana mused. Len and Boxin looked just as confused as she did. Opening the door, Hana found no one around, but there was an odd box on the ground. Picking up the box, she brought it inside and opened it. Among the things she pulled out were a bone, a tennis ball, and a strange stuffed animal. "What on Pop Star are these?"

Boxin sniffed at the odd objects before checking the stuffed animal. Giving it a small bite, Boxin was startled when a squeak came from it. He whined, backing away from the toy in apparent fear. Len picked up the toy and squeezed it, getting the same squeaking noise. "Oh, I get it! These are pet toys! See, Boxin?" He squeaked the toy in front of the puppy a few times.

"Box?" The puppy whimpered. Len placed the toy back on the ground, and Boxin approached it, hesitantly squeaking it by pressing it with his glove. Nothing happened beside the squeak, so Boxin bit into it, squeaking it some more and quickly getting used to it. "Box box!" The puppy shook the toy in its mouth for a moment before flinging it up and catching it again. He then turned his attention to the bone, sniffing it for a moment before chewing it happily. Hana giggled at her new pet.

However, unbeknownst to them, the stuffed animal's eyes gained a red light within them. Back at Magolor's control panel, he was observing Boxin playing with the toys, having moved on to the tennis ball. "Well, Step 1 of the plan is going well, at least." Magolor mused. "I can only hope that he takes to the toys in the way he should."

"Those toys WERE tested, weren't they?" His master asked.

"Tested every which way but loose. But there's an X factor in play here." Magolor replied, noting Boxin's new caretakers. "Unlike the others, this one has a guiding presence against fighting. If he's already bonded with them, we'll definitely have a problem."

"Indeed… Just keep a careful watch on him." His master said, Magolor nodding in response.

*The Next Day* *The Playground*

"All right, Boxin, you ready?" Tiff asked, holding the tennis ball. Boxin shook its stubby tail, panting happily. "Speak!"

"Box box!" Boxin barked. Tiff threw the ball down the field, Boxin chasing after it. The ball landed on the ground, and Boxin leapt and grabbed it, rolling on the ground and coming up facing the others. "Box!"

The others were laughing: Boxin was just so darn cute. "Okay, Boxin, bring it back over!" Tiff called.

The puppy tried to walk, but the tennis ball being half the size of its body made it difficult. It apparently had a lightbulb moment, though, as it took its mouth off the ball and began batting it with its gloves as it ran, keeping it going. "Hey, check that out!" Kirby said.

"He's pretty smart for a puppy!" Fololo said.

"Box! Box!" Boxin batted the tennis ball back and forth, scampering after it. However, it felt an urge build within it. When it reached the ball, Boxin reared back its fist and… "BOX!" It gave a mighty punch, sending the ball careening right towards the others, more specifically Tuff.

The boy in question was so startled that his eyes briefly came out from behind his hair. "YIPE!" He cried.

"Move!" Kirby cried, pushing Tuff out of the way and making the ball fly right past him, impacting a tree hard enough to make the ball smash through part of the bark.

Everyone's eyes were wide. "Wh… What was that about?!" Marx cried.

Boxin suddenly shook his "head", blinking. The urge he felt was gone. "Box?" He looked at Hana, who appeared a little freaked, and he immediately felt bad. Boxin looked down, whimpering a bit as he walked back over to them. He meekly licked Tuff's hand as if to apologize.

Tuff was quick to forgive, petting Boxin's head. "Hey, don't worry about it. It was an accident, wasn't it?" He asked, Boxin nodding and warming back up to him.

The puppy quickly lost interest and went for the squeaky toy, biting and squeaking it. Tiff giggled. "He must not have that big of an attention span."

"Can't fault him for that. He's got a lot of stuff to play with." Kirby said as he walked over to retrieve the tennis ball.

Boxin began rapidly squeaking the toy, but as he did, another urge began to well up within him. The toy's eyes still lit through the camera within, Boxin began growling as he started gnawing even harder, the squeaking agitating him even more. Eventually, Boxin stopped biting the toy and began punching it with his gloves, the squeaking getting slightly weaker with each hit. "Whoa. He must not really like that toy." Falala mused.

"Grrrrr… Rrrrrrowf!" Boxin growled, looking around before spying the bone. Rushing over and grabbing it, Boxin somehow pulled it apart, showing a spring within, and it began swinging the bone around like a pair of nunchucks.

"Whoa! That ain't gonna fly!" Kirby said, quickly using Inhale on the bone. Boxin's grip wasn't as good as it hoped, as the nunchuck bone flew out of his glove and into Kirby's hand, the Inhale cancelling out.

"What did you do that for, Kirby?" Hana asked.

"Remember what that letter said? 'Keep Boxin out of battle'?" Kirby recalled. He twirled the nunchuck bone around himself for a bit. "This certainly looks like a battle toy to me."

"Adept deduction, Kirby." A familiar low voice said. Meta Knight had made one of his characteristic unseen appearances. "I see I am not the only one who was suspicious of this."

"What do you mean, Meta Knight?" Tiff asked.

"These toys were given to King Dedede through whatever new system he is using." Meta Knight told them.

"So the king is the one who sent them to us?" Hana gasped. "Whatever for?"

"I sense it… These toys are having an adverse effect on the young one." Meta Knight told them. He noticed that Boxin was gnawing on one end of a purple-and-green tug-of-war toy. "Watch." Moving over to Boxin, the puppy started growling at him, giving him a glare. Unfazed, Meta Knight slowly reached for the toy, grabbing it without anything happening. He pulled back as a test, Boxin growling again as he pulled back.

"So… Meta Knight is having us watch him play with Boxin?" Marx asked, unimpressed.

Kirby and Tiff, however, both felt that Meta Knight was on to something. Meta Knight began pulling harder on the toy, making Boxin also pull back harder, his glare sharpening and growls becoming louder. Meta Knight's eyes were green; he saw something happening. "Hyah!" With a jerk, Meta Knight pulled the toy and actually lifted Boxin off the ground. However, Boxin let go of the toy and lunged at Meta Knight with a snarl and bared teeth. Jumping back to avoid him, Meta Knight didn't jump quick enough, causing Boxin to grab hold of and tear off a small piece of his cape.

From the squeaky toy's eyes, Magolor watched the scene unfold. "Well… he certainly learned quickly."

The others gasped at Boxin's sudden reaction. "It is as I thought… These toys are awakening a fighting instinct within him. They are turning him into a vicious fighter." Meta Knight mused.

"Box! Box!" Boxin growing, beating his gloves together.

"If you want to fight me… I will show no mercy." Meta Knight said, reaching for Galaxia.

"Don't you dare!" Hana yelled, an angry look on her face. "I won't let you hurt him!"

"Not even if he turns into a monster from all of that?" Kirby rhetorically asked. But then, something clicked. _ 'Wait… monster?'_ He looked back at Boxin, noticing the symbol on the back of the tag again. "…That's it! Boxin's a monster! Just like Batafire and Captain Gemra!"

"Are you sure about that, Kirby?" Tiff asked.

"He has to be! A puppy with boxing gloves, toys that awaken a fighting instinct, weird symbol on his collar… I can't think of anything else he could be!" Kirby said.

"Monster or not, I know Boxin isn't dangerous. He can't be." Hana said, eerily sure of her words. Kneeling down, Hana held out an arm. "Come here, Boxin. Show Mama that you're just a little puppy."

Boxin tried to glare at Hana, but something within him started making his anger fade when he looked at her. Despite only being her pet for a few days at most, Boxin couldn't help but feel an attachment to the Cappy. She took him in during the dead of night, fed him, and took care of him. Boxin's eyes slowly softened, and his fighting spirit began to leave him. "…Oh?" Meta Knight wondered.

"Whoa, it's actually working." Marx realized.

"No, no, no, NO!" Magolor cried from his control panel.

Eventually, Boxin's cute eyes returned to normal. "Box…" However, Boxin gained a scared look as his eyes started to water. He started whining, and he stepped back once. Then, his tears flew as he turned around and started to run away.

"Wait, Boxin!" Hana called.

"I got him!" Kirby said, starting up his Inhale again and focusing it on the puppy. As much as he tried to run, the Inhale was too powerful a force, so Boxin was pulled back and eventually flew through the air in a backflip.

"Catch him, quick!" Tiff said. Kirby stopped the Inhale as Hana rushed forward, catching Boxin out of the air.

"Gotcha!" She said. Boxin tried futilely to get out of her grasp, whining all the while, but Hana held him tight. "Stop it, Boxin! I'm not mad at you!" Those words startled Boxin, making him stop his struggle and slowly look up at his owner. "You don't really want to fight, do you?" Boxin meekly shook his head, burying his face into her arms and whimpering softly.

"Once again, one of the creatures from wherever those monsters are coming from doesn't fit the mold of monster." Kirby said.

"This creature seems very young. Perhaps it was not fully trained yet." Meta Knight mused.

"That would explain why these things exist." Tuff said, holding up the nunchuck bone, which had been pushed back into bone form, but it sprung open in his hands, startling him.

Hana looked down at Boxin. "Well, I won't let them turn you into a vicious beast. Would you all be dears and get rid of those toys for me? I don't want Boxin anywhere near them now that I know what they can do."

"You don't have to tell us twice, ma'am." Kirby said.

"Let's get these things to the castle. The furnace can take of these." Tiff said, picking up a couple toys. The others began grabbing the rest.

Boxin's whine caught Hana's attention, making her look down at him. The puppy stared at her with his still somewhat afraid eyes. "Box?" He barked nervously. Hana merely chuckled and petted his head, and the dog slowly started to relax again. Boxin meekly licked her arm in response.

*That Night*

Magolor knocked his head against the control panel repeatedly. "Curses, curses, curses…"

"What is it this time…?" His master asked.

"It's as I feared. Boxin's bonded with the Cappy woman, and she can somehow negate the effects of our training toys." Magolor said.

"What?! How is that possible?" His master yelled.

"Boxin was created to follow the wishes of whoever he perceives as his master. Since the Cappy woman is master to him, he does what he feels will make her happy with him." Magolor explained. "I was afraid that having a guiding factor against fighting would mess things up, and I was right. To please his new master, Boxin will suppress any fighting instinct or rage in order to be a docile pet."

Magolor's master growled. "Curse it all… Then we have no choice. Boxin must be retrieved and re-trained from scratch."

"…And I think I know how to pull that off." Magolor said with a finger snap. "Knowing him, he didn't read the fine print." Clacking away on the keyboard, Magolor managed to get Escargoon on the screen, but Dedede was nowhere to be seen.

"Gaah!" Escargoon yelped, startled. "Next time, warn someone before you make a house call!"

"Sorry, Escargoon. Where is His Majesty?" Magolor asked.

"Early bedtime. This had better be important." Escargoon replied.

"Well, we have a problem, again. Those training toys didn't end up giving us the result they wanted."

Escargoon raised an eyebrow. "Is it that hard to train somethin' with a brain smaller than King Dedede's?"

Magolor chuckled. "Oh, nice one, Escargoon. But that's not what I meant." He brought up an image of Hana. "It seems that Boxin has bonded with this Cappy, and to make sure she's happy, he's shaken off all of the instinct-awakening devices on the training toys we sent you." He pressed his face against the screen. "Not to mention your podunk security let those kids chuck them right into the castle's furnace!"

"I wondered why I smelled something burning earlier." Escargoon mused. "Eh, what's it to us? I knew that offer you made us was no good, anyway!"

"Listen here, snail breath." Magolor threatened. "I may be on the other side of a screen, but with access to the transporter, I can send any monster I want over there to-!"

"Magolor!" His master snapped, making Magolor whirl around. "No badmouthing the customers! We have a reputation to keep!"

Magolor gulped, sweating bullets. "Y-Y-Yes, Master." He turned back around to Escargoon. "Sorry, Escargoon. I am so not used to this sort of stress." He was rubbing his temples as he said this, then he sighed. "Okay, listen. I'm amending the terms of our little contract. Since re-training Boxin isn't going to happen, you can keep the 75-Under Backout deal if you can capture him and send him back to us."

"Hmm… sounds easy enough." Escargoon said.

"Maybe, maybe not. Fury or not, Boxin knows how to defend itself." Magolor said. "Therefore, I'm going to recommend that King Dedede order a monster tomorrow in order to make sure Boxin can't get away."

"Tomorrow? Why not now?" The snail asked. "I'm still awake, you know."

"You won't be for long if King Dedede finds out you used the transporter without his OK." Magolor informed him. Escargoon gulped, picturing Dedede chasing him around with his hammer and even his limo. "…I just realized I might've given you nightmares. Sorry once again."

"…Don't be. He sometimes hit me for no reason." Escargoon said. "I'll relay the message anyway."

"Good. I await his answer tomorrow." Magolor said. "Pleasant dreams!" He signed off, the monitor retreating into the wall. Escargoon sweatdropped.

*The Next Day*

The sun shined over Cappy Town as Kirby, Tiff, and Tuff spent their day in town. "Box box!" A familiar barking caught their ears, and they turned to see Boxin walking happily in front of Len and Hana, the latter holding a makeshift black leash that was attached to Boxin's collar. The puppy looked as happy as ever.

"Hey, you three!" Tiff said, noticing that Boxin looked better. She knelt down to his level. "Hey, Boxin!"

"Box, box!" Boxin barked, jumping into Tiff's arms and licking her face, making her laugh.

"He sure knows how to bounce back, doesn't he?" Len asked with a chuckle. "All it took was last night's dinner and a little pampering, and those tears dried right up."

"No foolin'?" Kirby asked, also kneeling. Boxin turned and licked Kirby's face happily as well. "Yep, no foolin', hahahaha!" Tiff petted his head.

"Box box!"

"BROOF!" A loud, low bark sounded, startling everyone. Footsteps were heard (albeit not heavy enough to shake the ground), and down the street came what looked like a large dog head with long ears, walking on two foot paws. The head had two long, floppy ears that casted shadows over its eyes, rendering them unseeable. It had a light brown muzzle with big, floppy jowls, hair follicles on each jowl, and a small (for its size, at least) brown nose. Oddly, there appeared to be thumbs on the ends of its ears.

The larger dog ambled toward them, stopping and putting its nose near Tuff, sniffing him, which blew Tuff's hair around. It then gave him a big lick with its tongue. "Whaa-aa-aa!" Tuff cried, as the lick actually lifted him off the ground for a second.

"Broof, broof." The larger dog barked.

Tiff noted something attached to the big dog's left foot: A collar. Walking over to it, she read the name on it. "…Box Boxer?"

Kirby scratched his head. "Friend of Boxin's, maybe?"

The smaller dog gazed at Box Boxer, confused. Scampering up to him, Boxin began sniffing him to see if he was a good animal, only to be on the receiving end of Box Boxer's heavy sniffing. "Box box!"

"Broof!" All of a sudden, one of Box Boxer's ears rose up and somehow picked Boxin up off the ground, using the end of its ear like a hand. Boxin's tail was wagging, and he looked happy to see the bigger dog.

"Well, Boxin certainly seems to like him." Hana mused.

"Heh heh heh heh! Hey, there you are, Box Boxer!" King Dedede's voice rang out. The blue-bellied king rounded a corner, noting that Box Boxer was holding Boxin. "Huh? You know that little puppy nugget?"

"Broof!" Box Boxer barked affirmatively. It then began gently tossing Boxin back and forth between its ear hands.

"Box! Box! Box!" Boxin barked happily, enjoying the ride.

"Uh… Dedede, what is this thing?" Tuff asked.

"It's my new pet monster, Box Boxer!" Dedede replied. "Seein' that little puppy nugget made me want a pet of my own, so I ordered somethin' like it!"

"Even though the last pets you tried having ended in disaster?" Kirby pointed out, recalling the incident with the Scarfies.

Dedede sweatdropped. "Those little toothballs were from Nightmare Enterprises! They gypped me all the time! This new company, whatever it's called, is givin' me good deals!"

As Box Boxer kept tossing Boxin around, Tiff got another look at the bigger dog's collar, flipping the tag around. She gasped. "Kirby, look!"

Kirby came over and looked at the tag, Tuff following. The symbol was familiar: A golden gear with weird wings. "That's the same symbol as the one on Boxin's tag!"

"Then that means… Boxin came from the same place as Box Boxer?" Tiff wondered. Both of them looked at the two dogs. Box Boxer unhooked Boxin's leash and tossed it back to Hana, then it began tossing the little dog into the air and catching him, Boxin giving a barking laughter as it flew.

"Box! Box box box!"

"Broof! Broof!"

"That would explain why they're so friendly with each other. They came from the same place!" Tuff stated.

"That means I was right. Boxin IS a monster: A baby monster." Kirby said. "And Box Boxer must be whatever older relative it might have."

"Well, ain't that somethin'?" Dedede asked, having heard all of that. "Who better than Box Boxer to be the little guy's new playmate, then? Heh heh heh heh! Hey, Box Boxer, try a little jugglin'!"

"Broof!" Box Boxer tossed Boxin up again, and rather than catch him, it used its ear palm to give pushes in order to keep Boxin aloft.

"Box! Box!" The puppy barked, clearly enjoying himself. The pushes soon turned into what appeared to be punches, as Box Boxer's ear-hands appeared to clench into fists as it kept the puppy aloft.

However, it then caught Boxin and threw him up even higher, then it stomped its foot. As Boxin fell back down, Box Boxer held its ear-arms to its sides… and swung them up. "BROOF!" The ear-hands opened and slammed hard against the puppy, making it cry out in pain.

"Boxin!" The others cried.

"What in tarnation?!" Dedede cried. Box Boxer grabbed hold of Boxin and swung him around in midair three times before chucking him a short distance, making him tumble on the ground. The downed puppy whimpered in pain, but slowly picked himself up, panting heavily.

"Broof, broof." Box Boxer barked, slowly stomping toward its prey. Boxin faced the bigger dog with a fearstruck expression.

"Hey, hey, whoa, Box Boxer! Heel, boy! Heel!" Dedede cried, grabbing one of the big dog's ear and pulling to get him to stop.

"Broof?" Box Boxer inquired, slowing turning to look at Dedede. "BROOF!" With lightning-fast speed, Box Boxer brought its other arm down on Dedede, giving him a good conk on the head. Dedede, dazed from the impact, stumbled before toppling over.

"Oh, man… Dedede ordered a mad dog!" Tuff cried.

Box Boxer turned back to Boxin, but while he wasn't looking, Hana had rushed over and grabbed Boxin off the ground, shooting a fierce glare at Box Boxer. "Broof?"

"If you come near my little Boxin again, I swear you will regret it, you mangy brute!" Hana snapped.

"Dear!" Len cried, shocked that his wife was actually angry.

Box Boxer snorted and held out an ear. "Broof, broof." It motioned with its hand as if to tell her to give it something.

Hana held Boxin protectively, Boxin returning the favor. "Never. You'll never take Boxin! You'll just turn him into a monster like yourself!"

"Box! Box box!" Boxin yelped in agreement.

Box Boxer stared for a moment, then merely resumed its slow pursuit. Len then stood beside Hana and Boxin. "I'll do my part, too! Back away from us and leave Boxin alone!"

Again Box Boxer stopped, staring at the Cappies that were talking back to it. "Broof… Broof…" Then, out of nowhere, Box Boxer got a massive burst of speed before leaping high into the air. "BROOOOOOOF!" It howled as it came back down, intent on punching them clean into the ground.

"LOOK OUT!" Kirby cried, diving toward them and pushing them all out of the way, managing to clear the impact point himself before Box Boxer's ear-fist slammed the pavement, causing a tiny crater. Len, Hana, Boxin, and Kirby landed on the ground themselves, Hana having kept her grip on the puppy.

"Are you all OK?" Tiff asked, her and Tuff rushing over.

Kirby picked himself up. "Aside from getting my outfit a bit dirty, yeah, I'm good." He said, brushing dust off of him.

Tuff helped Len and Hana get to their feet. "Ooh, I'm glad I didn't get hip problems early because of that." Len groaned.

"Box?" Boxin barked, looking up at Hana.

"Nnn, I'm OK." She said.

Kirby then turned to Box Boxer, who pulled its ear-fist out of the ground and turned to him. "Looks like this dog needs a trip to obedience school, Star Warrior style."

"Kirby, try sucking it up!" Tiff said.

"Are you nuts, Tiff? You know I can't suck up enemies that are too big and heavy!" Kirby replied.

"Maybe not before, but since your Inhale got upgraded, you might be able to handle it now!"

Kirby realized that Tiff had a point. "…Yeah, you're right! It's worth a shot!" Revving up his feet, Kirby leapt forward and unleashed Inhale, turning it on Box Boxer.

"Broof?" Box Boxer wondered, seeing its ears flopping from the wind. Narrowing its shadowed eyes, it merely stalked toward Kirby, its body completely unaffected by Inhale's force.

Beads of sweat formed on Kirby's forehead as he kept Inhale going, but he was quickly getting tired. At that moment, Box Boxer picked up speed and rushed forward. "Kirby, look out!" Tuff cried. Opening his squinted-shut eyes, Kirby realized that Box Boxer was bearing down on him, making him cease Inhale and immediately jump to the side, avoiding Box Boxer's attempted ramming attack.

"So much for that!" Kirby griped. "I get a whole new body, and I STILL can't handle the heavyweights?"

Box Boxer stomped its foot three times, "Broof"ing each time, before it placed its hands together to its side. Red energy began to gather in the space between its hands, forming a sphere of reddish-white energy. "BROOOOOOOOFFFF!" It threw its hands forward, sending the energy forward as a reddish-white burning projectile. However, Box Boxer started rushing forward itself right after it, holding its arm up for a punch.

Kirby realized exactly what it was trying to do: A distraction attack. However, Kirby looked behind him and realized there was a building right behind him. _ 'Oh, man… if I dodge, that building goes down! If I Inhale it, Box Boxer can punch me!' _ He gulped._ 'Just what I need: A smart monster!'_

"Kirby!" Everyone cried.

However, while everyone was shocked by this, Boxin felt something different: An urge. It was different from the one brought on by the toys: It wanted to help. Taking the opportunity, Boxin wrenched himself from Hana's arms and began running. "Boxin, no!" Hana cried.

Boxin had no intention of actually fighting. Instead, he rushed over to a nearby crate and picked it up effortlessly despite his small size and chucked it into the air. As it fell back to the ground, Boxin wound up its fist, staring at the incoming attack. "…BOX!" With a big punch, Boxin socked the crate clean through the air and right into the energy attack, causing the attack itself to explode on contact. Unfortunately for Box Boxer, it was still chasing the attack, so the tail end of the explosion hit it in the face, not really damaging it, but it did halt its charge, giving it a nice ash face for its troubles. Kirby and the others blinked in surprise before turning to Boxin. "Box, box!" The puppy then used his teeth to pull his boxing gloves off of his hands, revealing small paws underneath, before turning to Kirby and barking repeatedly, nudging the gloves with his nose.

Kirby realized what Boxin was telling him: Inhale the boxing gloves. A smile came over him. "…Yeah, yeah! Good idea!" He unleashed Inhale again, Boxin quickly rushing out of range before the suction got to him. The Inhale swept up the boxing gloves and turned them into energy streams, sucking them into his mouth. Kirby swallowed the gloves and leapt into the air.

*Transformation Scene*

Kirby backflipped rapidly in the starry sky before righting himself, clapping his hands in front of him as he closed his eyes as if in meditation. Light washed over his body, making his hair turn brown, his feet turn the same color as his skin, and his outfit change to resemble a white martial arts gi, red bandages appearing over his hands. A familiar red ribbon flew in, and Kirby grabbed it, slung it around his head, and tied a knot in it, making it a familiar red headband, though it now sported diagonal lighter red stripes and a yellow star in the center. A familiar pulse of energy occurred when he tied the knot, then Kirby gave two punches and a spin kick before posing with his dukes up.

*End Scene*

"Aw, yeah! He turned into Fighter Kirby!" Tuff cheered.

Boxin leapt back into Hana's arms, turning to look at Kirby. "Box box box box!" He barked, hoisting a paw up.

Kirby shot a peace sign to Boxin before turning to face Box Boxer, who was shaking the ash off his face. He looked confused at Kirby's new appearance. "Broof?"

Clapping his hands together, Kirby bowed. "Make sure you hold nothing back against me. Otherwise this fight wouldn't be any fun." He said before dashing forward.

"Broof!" Box Boxer merely charged forward again, intent on meeting Kirby in battle.

The larger dog tried punching Kirby, but Kirby slid under the incoming punch and quickly got back to his feet. "Smash Punch!" He fired a blast of blue energy with a hard punch, striking Box Boxer in the face and letting Kirby get closer. "Vulcan Combo!" Once up close, Kirby gave a few lightning-fast (yet weak) punches to his face, then a quick upward kick to the underside of the snout, and finished the combo with a downward punch to the nose. Box Boxer, however, wasn't fazed by most of this and swung its ear around, grabbing Kirby by the back of his outfit. "Huh? WHAA!" He yelped as Box Boxer chucked him into the air and pulled the same powerful clap attack on him that Boxin got hit with. "GAAH!" Kirby bounced off of Box Boxer's head and landed on the ground. "Ugh!"

"BROOF!" Box Boxer let out a loud bark as it suddenly shot into the air, angling itself to crash back down on Kirby.

Kirby saw the shadow of the descending Box Boxer and looked up to see it coming, but rather than run, he got to his feet and jumped after it, Box Boxer looking shocked at this. "Double Kick!" Once Kirby was near Box Boxer, he immediately twirled around and nailed it in the snout with a spin kick, only to unleash a second kick that he fired an energy blast from, the blast exploding in Box Boxer's face. Box Boxer landed on its feet, sliding back a bit from the force of the attack, Kirby landing shortly after. "You might've got me once, but I was hoping you'd put up a better fight."

"Broof?" Box Boxer's shadowed eye twitched, and it stomped its foot angrily. "BROOF! BROOF! BROOF!"

"I'm just calling it like I see it, pal! You're strong, I admit, but since I've become Fighter Kirby, you don't stand a chance!" Kirby said, crossing his arms with a smile.

Box Boxer growled and placed its ear-hands together, gathering red energy between them. "Here comes that attack again!" Tiff cried.

"Oh yeah? Well, two can play this game!" Kirby said, beating his fists together before mimicking Box Boxer's gesture, placing his hands together at his side. Blue energy began to gather between them, forming a bluish-white orb similar to the one Box Boxer was generating.

"BROOF!" Box Boxer, impatient, fired off its energy immediately as another reddish-white burning projectile.

Kirby, however, continued to charge energy, staring down the incoming attack. "Come on… Come on…!" A pulse came from his energy, the orb getting larger. "Just a little more…" The others watched on, awed and fearful. Finally, another pulse came from the energy, with the orb reaching a larger size. "Yes!" Smirking, Kirby let out a loud yell of power. "FORCE BLAST!" Thrusting his hands forward, Kirby fired off the energy as a bluish-white burning projectile, not unlike Box Boxer's, but smaller, and moving at a much faster speed. The two attacks collided in mid-air, struggling against each other, but despite the smaller size, Kirby's attack was pushing it back. Finally, the blue attack completely eradicated the red one and shot forward, bearing down on Box Boxer like a missile. Box Boxer yelped in fear, but opening its mouth caused it to actually swallow Kirby's Force Blast. The big dog began flailing about, scared out of its mind, before it slowly began to go rigid and glow with a bluish-white light. Its body seemingly began to inflate as lightning crackled around it, then the Force Blast really kicked in, causing a massive explosion that completely obliterated Box Boxer from the inside-out, leaving nothing behind. Kirby pumped his right fist with a grin. "Total victory!"

"Way to go, Kirby!" Tiff cried.

"Box box! Box box!" Boxin barked happily, hopping up and down in Hana's arms.

Kirby's body glowed white before he reverted to his base form, and he coughed out another odd star. It was a light red with a darker red rim, but the shades were different from the one he coughed up as Fire Kirby, the center red being paler and the rim being more maroon-colored. The image in the star was also different: A boxing glove. Like the others, though, this star vanished in a puff of smoke, but the smoke also dropped something: Boxin's gloves, which Kirby picked up. "This new body confuses me more every day." He heard Dedede slowly sit up, holding his head and groaning. "You all right, King Dedede?"

"…Someone get me an aspirin…" Dedede groaned. He looked around and noticed that Box Boxer was gone. "Did you get rid of that mad dog?" Kirby nodded. Dedede stared for a moment, then went back to holding his head. "Ngh… I got nothin'. Thanks, Kirby." He waddled off woozily as the others approached Kirby.

"I guess that conk on the head brought out a bit of niceness in King Dedede." Tiff said, making everyone laugh a bit.

"Box box! Box box!" Boxin barked happily, panting.

"You were a big help out there, little guy." Kirby said, petting Boxin's head. Boxin licked his hand. Kirby then held up its boxing gloves. "I think these are yours." Boxin stared at the gloves for a moment, then pushed on them with his paw, snorting once. "No? You don't want them?"

"Box, box." Boxin barked, sinking back into Hana's arms.

Kirby smiled. "I get it. You want me to keep them so you can't fight anymore." Boxin nodded. "All right then, I'll keep 'em. They could give me an easy source for Fighter Kirby." Boxin wagged his tail.

"So what'll happen with Boxin now?" Tiff asked.

"He'll be staying with us, of course. He is mine and Len's pet, after all." Hana said, smiling down at Boxin.

"Box, box!" Boxin barked, wagging his tail.

Kirby petted Boxin's head. "Then it looks like we're going be seeing a lot more of you, little guy." Boxin licked Kirby's hand, making him chuckle. 'I still can't help but wonder, though; if you came from the same place as Box Boxer and Batafire, why weren't you a monster to begin with? And how did you end up here? Who sent you to us?'

*Castle Dedede*

Still holding his head, Dedede stumbled into his throne room. "ESCARGOON!" He shouted, which was a bad idea, as it made his head hurt even more. "Oh, my head…"

Escargoon rushed to the throne room, startled. "S-Sire?!"

"Get me an aspirin... Better yet, make it the whole bottle. I'm gonna need it." Dedede moaned, stumbling into his throne and activating the video screen. Escargoon quickly darted out of the room.

The screen turned on, showing Magolor with his back turned, but he turned around when he saw that the screen was on, noting Dedede's pained look. "I take it things didn't go so well." He gulped when Dedede immediately leveled a harsh glare at him. "Oh dear… What happened…?"

"You'd better give me a good deal! Your stupid mutt pounded me into the ground like a nail!" Dedede yelled, aggravating his headache again and making him grip his head. "Owww... And now my head's beatin' like a rock-n'-roll drum..."

"That does sound rather nasty." Magolor mused. "Unfortunately, we at Lorxram Express are not responsible for the actions of our monsters after transport." He held up a piece of paper with King Dedede's signature. "It's all plainly explained in our contract with you, King Dedede."

Dedede immediately stood up on his throne and started leaning in toward the screen, still glaring at Magolor. Beads of sweat instantly formed on Magolor's "face". "You'd better make sure the next monster you send me doesn't pull this sort of thing again, or so help me, I'm gonna-!" Unfortunately, Dedede leaned in a little too far, causing his body to topple over the armrest of his throne. "WHAAAAAAA!" Flailing his arms, Dedede fell onto the floor, landing square on his head.

"Ooooooh…! That couldn't have been good for that headache…" Magolor groaned.

Escargoon came back into the throne room with the aspirin, but he dropped the bottle upon seeing Dedede on the floor. "SIRE!" He cried, rushing over to him. Dedede's eyes were spinning. "What happened to him?"

"He got a little… overexcited." Magolor said.

"Don't make me wear the pink bow, mommy..." Dedede breathed, clearly out of it.

"And that's my cue to exit. Toodles!" Magolor chirped, turning off the video feed.

"Sire…?" Escargoon asked worriedly.

A goofy smile came over the king's face. "...Twinkle twinkle... little star... Weh heh heh heh, weh heh..." The star-shaped iris-out focused on the poor guy's face before closing.

* * *

**Vile: Yet another day in Cappy Town comes to a close, and Kirby and co. have a new friend!**

**Tiff: You won't be treating minor characters here like most of the one-shot characters in the real show, will you?**

**Vile: Where they just up and vanish? Oh, of course not. We'll be seeing more of Boxin later on.**

**Kirby: Hopefully you'll have those chapters of GSTART done soon.**

**Vile: Me too, Kirby. Me too. If you guys liked this chapter, leave a review for me! Ja ne for now!**


End file.
